Epic Islands
by gearkat
Summary: Before Two year jump. Usopp finds himself on a island after being hit by Kuma's paw. There he meets a mysterious girl, who is kind but holds a dangerous secret. Will the world be distorted or will love come though? Usopp/OC


Epic Islands

There are many islands in the Grand Line. Some are big, some are small, some are just a speck in the ocean while others seem to go on forever. There is one, some say, that holds a monster that can destroy the world. They call it 'Epic Islands', they are an island chain connected under water by land so that it makes it difficult for large ships to get around them. The Calm Belt waters also prevent this, but those are different monsters entirely. Very few have seen these islands, though most would say if you put them next to each other you could say that they all had the same nose, or that they where truly family, no matter how far apart they where. So we start this adventure with a time limit. As the rising moon lifted over the calm sea a howl echoed from the middle island, whipping around in the winds. The smallest and the oldest islands seem to cry out silently and sadly with the raging howl. The time had at last come.

Usopp could barely move. Kuma's paw hit had felt like a planet hitting him, the flight though the air had chilled his bones so it was to his surprise that he woke in a warm bed with a delightful smell of hot soup filling his long nose. He could barely lift himself up to look around at where he was. It was a small room, barely room for anything. There was a large fireplace at one end, with a black pot with a good smell wafting from it. There where tree roots weaving in and out of the dirt ceiling and walls. His bed was in a little hole in the wall, an earthy smell covering him. Usopp slowly sat up, his whole body aching as he suddenly noticed a body sitting against the wall, head resting on the chest. Scared for a moment, Usopp thought it was dead, though watching it for a second he noticed the chest rising and falling with sleep. So this place belonged to that person? It didn't seem big enough for more then one, though. There was a chair by the fire that the body didn't seem to be using, even though it would have been nice and warm by the fire. On the floor next to the chair was a bag full of colorful yarn, a yellow scarf already finished, a yellow hat set aside for completion. Usopp slowly pushed himself to dangle his legs over the side of the bunk, his body wrapped in some sweet smelling bandages.  
"Onee-chan….imouto…. Please…." said the person, stretching a bit. Usopp jumped out of his skin at the noise in the silent room as he noticed that the person was very much female. This eased him a bit as the pot let out a tweet and her head bobbed up. Her eyes slowly opened and she stretched a big yawn escaping her lips. "mmm…five o'clock already." Her green eyes looked over to Usopp as chills ran down his back from her stare. She slowly got up, moaning as she stretched. "Ah and my guest is awake. How are you feeling, sir?"  
"I-I'm fine…thank you…." Usopp stammered as she sat down on the bunk. She smiled, and what a nice smile it was! Usopp suddenly didn't want her to stop smiling, as a blush crossed his face.  
"Well I should hope so, you where a mess flying into the forest like that, kids now a days. Wouldn't know north if it bit them on the nose. Of cores we are in the Grand Line and finding north is like trying to find a white rabbit in a snow storm.." she stood up and walked over to the soup, dishing out a large bowl and bringing it back over to Usopp, who took it gratefully.  
"Where am I?" he asked taking a large sip of the hot soup with the spoon.  
"You're the unlucky one, landing dead center of the Epic Islands." Usopp spit out the soup that he had been enjoying, fright crossing his face.  
"THE EPIC ISLANDS?" He stammered, as chills ran up and down his back, "The one that no one has ever escaped from?"  
"Granted they are a nice place to live, so most people who find them don't want to leave."  
"The one that's ruled with an iron fist by the three evil sisters?"  
"Hey now, I wouldn't say their evil! They never ruled anything, let alone with an Iron fist." She said, her brow furrowing.  
"The ones with the huge monster in the middle that will one day destroy the world and eat all of our souls?"  
"Depends on your definition of 'monster'. " she said quietly, pushing him to lay down again, "and if those are all the rumors running around no wonder people are scared when they first land here." she then stood up and walked over to the chair, sitting down in it. "I, myself, have lived here my entire life and never seen any of that stuff." she looked over at him, her green eyes flashing again as she picked up the hat that was needing to be finished. "but if you truly are frightened I promise no harm will come to you while your in my care." Usopp felt a great relief wash over him like a cool water.  
"Thank you. My name is Usopp…" he said, a wave of sleep seeming to wash over him, "I am a Great Pirate." She laughed, a wonderful sound to the silence of the room.  
"I'm Krista." she said sweetly. As Usopp drifted off, he could swear he heard her singing.

Usopp was able to stand today. After waking, he had tested his legs, wanting to use the restroom. He was able to get there and back, with only minimal pain. He couldn't wait to show Krista. Usopp was just getting back into bed when there was a crash against the door. Krista came tumbling in and landed on the floor face down. An arrow stuck out from behind her back, she let out a grown as Usopp rushed over as fast as he could to help her up. Krista's face was a mess. One side was turning black and blue and swelling while the other had a cut across it.  
"What happened are you alright?" He desperately asked helping her over to a stool. Krista coughed holding her broken ribs as she started taking off her cloaked and shirt, hissing as they tugged on the arrow imbedded in her meat.  
"Damn random accouters…adventures all ways looking for experience." she said, as Usopp helped her out of her shirt. Her back and chest where covered with scars and fresh wounds. She pointed over to a cabinet, that when Usopp opened it, had a large bag marked 'First Aid'. He brought it to her as she slowly took her free hand away from a huge gash in her abdomen.  
"Thanks Usopp." she said as he pulled a chair over, his face was bright red with her sitting there in only a bra and pants but the way she looked kept any other ideas from coming up.  
"What happened? Who attacked you?" He took some bandages, prepping things for her to use.  
"Adventures. They always come here, trying to kill me." She stopped him as he tried to reach for the arrow "No, that's last. It's barbed so you have to push it all the way though, like a fish hook." She took a needle and some thread, moving her glasses, sporting a crack in one frame. She squinted and put the string thought the eye pulling it tight and knotting the end. "They spend one night hearing stories in the bars and inns on the outer islands and all the sudden they want to claim some big bad beasties head. So they paddle their little boats over here and jump the first person they see."  
"But you're a girl! Not a monster…" his voice trailed off a little as he started backing up against the wall. Panic washed over his face as it slowly dawned on him. Adventure's where coming to the middle island. The middle island was home to the big bad beastie, who was known to take female form. So far Krista was the only person he met on the island. Adventure's attacked her without even asking her name, without double checking to make sure they weren't attacking a random stranger. The scars on her body told that she had been fighting for a very long time. Krista let the silence seep into her skin, her eyes closed, and her breath faint. She knew what he was thinking, they all thought the same thing weather you showed them kindness or hate.  
"Not a monster…THE monster." she said calmly, holding the needle over a candle flame nearby. "Ten years ago the sooth seer of our village told the chief, my older sister, that our line of women had been trying to be rid of the Big Bad for centuries. I had just finished a book about how to basically bottle the demon in someone. So at first chance I hopped in a boat and did the ceremony that bound the beast to my soul. Longest night of my life." she flinched a little as she plunged the now sterile needle into her skin around the gash in her abdomen. Calmly sewing herself up as an old woman works on a quilt. She felt Usopp's eyes bore into her back, his fear like small hunks of meat to the beast within her. "After I had finished I couldn't stay on the main islands, fear feeds the demon you see, the more fear concentrated in one place the stronger  
It gets. It has never escaped me as of yet though."  
"Why….why would you take such evil into yourself?" Usopp didn't know what to think, either the woman before him was unspeakably evil or there was more to the story then he thought. His words where still dripping with thoughts that she had done it for her own needs. For power that the beast brought with it.  
"I did it for my sisters. Every ten years my family was sacrificing the youngest to this beast. My little sister was only eight…But I will not lie to the fact that I did desire the power once I got it. I spent the first two years killing everyone who was on this island with my bear hands. Slaughtered them. They poisoned the animals, I found the cure. They filled it with plants that eat the unwary, I fed them the unwary. "She finished sewing up her abdomen. Taking some gauze to wipe up the blood and rubbing some alcohol on it. She then wrapped it up slowly, the cuts on her back already dried up. So only the barbed arrow remained.  
"Why did you stop?" Usopp asked shakily as he watched Krista's back rise and fall with labored breaths. She was crying, he realizes, here he was in a small room with a girl who just sewed up her own gut and yet she's crying about what she did.  
"Some pirates stopped me." She turned around expecting to see Usopp but instead was met with a man in a mask. His arms crossed, his painted eyes glaring at her. She slowly reached for a saw in the first aid kit when his hand slammed down on hers, slowly she brought her red, tear soaked face up to stare him down. Her voice never wavering, "Arrows are so hard to get out by yourself. Can you please help me?"  
"Who where the pirates?" He demanded, his eyes glued to hers' as neither of them moved.  
"Let me tell you the story then, but you have to promise to help with the arrow after." After his head bobbed in agreement she sighed and went on. "It was eight years ago…"

8 years ago.

"It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark. Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart. You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it. You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes. You're paralyzed!" Krista sang, dragging a whimpering youth behind her. She pulled him up against a tree, smiling wide as her shadow, wavered around on the ground behind her.  
"Don't be so scared, my little one." she cooed softly, pressing herself into his body. She reached out with her hand, clasping it around the young man's throat. Krista didn't even flinch as her black, inky shadow crawled up the victim, wrapping around him like a blanket. His screamed echoed though the island as the shadow devoured him.

"Please! We beg you to leave this hell for which you have come to!" The woman begged, she was bowed low on the ground, her children and elderly father stacked into a boat just on shore. The pirates looked at her; some of the crew opting to stay on bored the ship.  
"Hell? This place looks so nice though…" Red-Hair Shanks said, rubbing his chin.  
"Maybe there's a bit more to that treasure story we heard on Onee-chan and Imouto, Shanks." said the towering Benn Beckman, shouldering his Rifle, a puff of smoke wafting up from his smoke.  
"There is a monster on this island, it has ravaged us to nothing, and we are the last of the in habitants." Croaked the old man in the boat. "My son was just taken from us as we ran though the woods. His scream was what just echoed over the hills now…"  
"He. He. He. Seems we found a bit of a problem here, Captain!" Chuckled Lucky Roo, chomping down on some meat. "Seems I did hear something about a big bad beastie out here…"  
"Ohh a big bad huh?" Yasopp said, wiping his firearm. "Haven't killed one of those in years."  
"You can't kill it." the woman said hurriedly, "The sisters would have your heads!"  
"You mean those nice girls from the main islands?" Shanks asked, a little shocked, "But they welcomed us with open arms! Showed us the sights of the islands! Why would they kill us for taking care of a big bad?"  
There was a crack in the woods as a few trees fell to the ground. The woman let out a scream as she rushed to the row boat, the old man and the children rowing as hard as they could as a black shadow zoomed across the sand and waves in a straight line, grabbing onto the woman's leg, dragging her from the boat.  
"Ain't nowhere to run, Ain't nowhere to hide…" Ain't nowhere to go, Reaper's saved your soul.." sang Krista as she dragged the woman though the waves and across the sand. "Why do you want to leave me, sweet one?" She chirped as the Woman screamed in fear. Suddenly a shot rang out, the blackness shooting back to Krista's body as she hissed. Yasopp blew the smoke from the end of his gun, smiling brightly. The woman, quick to react, ran from the beach and dove into the waves, rather dealing with the monsters of the deep then Krista.  
"You're the big bad beastie huh?" Shanks chuckled, walking right across the sand to Krista. "You're about what? Sixteen?" The shadow rushed him. It's empty maw ready to eat this new prey.  
"Stop." he said. The shadow obeyed, fleeing to under Krista's feet. There where several beats of silence as the pirates walked up to Krista.  
"I….why do you not fear me?" Krista slowly sank to her knees, all her power seemingly to row away with that last family in the boat. Not a man abroad the ship before her had any fear of her. She let out a deep growl.  
"None of that now missy. We where told there's a treasure on this island, and if you would be so kind as to tell us where it is, we'll be on our merry way." Yasopp said, picking Krista up by the shirt collar. "You know, I have a son about your age…"

Sogeking looked on unfeeling as he grasped a hand on Krista's shoulder, the other firmly on the far end of the arrow.  
"Red-Haired Shanks and his crew spent a year with me. Teaching me finer points of everything they could. Such a cheerful group I do wonder what they are doing now." She said, taking a hold of her knees, white knuckled as she let out a deep sigh, "you sure you can do this? I mean its one thing to put an arrow in…"  
"Just count to three." he said, sweat beading on the back of his neck. "The sniper king will take care of this."  
"Alright, remember just push it till the arrow head comes out on this side. Those feathers on your end would make a bigger hole then there already is….one…." She said, gritting her teeth.  
"You sure this is going to work? This has got to be very painful…" Sogeking gripped the end of the arrow, ready to plunge the arrow all the way though to the other side of her body.  
"Oh I know. This isn't the first time I've had an arrow stuck in me…Two…."  
They both held their breaths as Sogeking shoved the arrow though Krista's meat. She let out a grunt as the barbs ripped though the flesh, blood spilling down her chest as the arrow head freed itself from inside of her.  
"Damnitsonofabitchmotherfucker!" she cursed, she took several breaths as the pain washed over her chest in light waves. "Ok, now just take the saw and saw off your end and I'll be able to pull it out the rest of the way on mine." Sogeking nodded as blood dripped lightly onto his hands. This was the easy part, he assured himself as the saw went smoothly though the light wood of the arrow.  
"So what happened to Usopp? Did he make a run for it on those wobbly legs of his?" Krista grasped the arrow, yanking it free as the barbs slid though. She took a moment to gasp for some air, then shock ran though her as she felt his hands tenderly pressing a prepared needle and thread to her skin. She didn't move as she felt him sew up the hole, each prick sending a shock though her spine. Never had anyone sewn her up, Krista had been alone after the Red-Haired pirates left, but here was someone she found in the woods, taken into her hide out. If he ran it would have been discovered, she had told him everything about herself. And yet right now, by the light of the fire, he was the closest thing she had to a nakama in a very long time. The silence was the worst though, as the thread was pulled though the flesh, she wondered what was on his mind.  
"Usopp isn't a very brave man." Sogeking softly said, finishing off the hole and covering it with tape and gauze. "As soon as he realized who you where he wanted to leave. To flee."  
"Wouldn't hold it against him." She responded darkly, "I am a monster."  
"No. You are a very kind girl. You took in a total stranger at a great risk to yourself. Nursed him back to health, fed him, you have shown him nothing but the kindest of natures, you are far from a monster." Sogeking moved her hand away from the other needle, taking it in her stead now coming to her front and sitting before her. Krista's face was red from such treatment and soaked with tears again as he gently wiped away the streams flowing down her face. She was in total awe as he positioned her to sit up straight as he started working on the hole in the front. She gulped watching his hands move softly across her skin; her emotions too jumbled up to even register much pain. She even felt a twitch of sadness when he was done, wishing those soft hands to be on her again.  
"Usopp…I mean sir…" She stammered to the mask, it looked up at her, his goggle eyes flashing in the fire.  
"Sogeking. My name is Sogeking." he said.  
"Sogeking…can….can you tell me if he'll come back…Usopp I mean….I want to thank him for the trust he's put in me." Krista wiped at her eyes, they burned from all the crying she had been doing lately. It annoyed her to no end.  
"He'll be back in the morning, after you get some rest." Usopp was grinning madly under Sogeking's mask. "But I do wonder, what of the beast? You said you had found a way to trap it within yourself, and then found a way to control it?"  
Krista pointed to her chest, on the right hand side there was a tattoo of a cherry blossom. "Five seals. I have five tattoos that act like corks in a bottle. The four elements, earth, wind, fire and air." She seemed proud as she showed off each of the pictures. One on each of her wrists and one on each ankle. "Not only do they keep me safe, they keep others safe. I had forgotten about the fifth one when I was a child but Shanks and his crew where able to help me get it. Once it was in place I stopped killing, and the beast was calmed." She stretched slowly, careful of the threads in her skin.  
"The Fifth element though, what is it?" Sogeking asked as Krista slowly stood up wincing.  
"Love." She said quietly, facing away from him as she rubbed her arm. "Other then my sisters that Crew was like a family to me, even if it was only for a year." There where several beats of silence as Krista waited for his response.  
"I see. Now you better be off to sleep. You must heal up so that you may help Usopp heal up." Sogeking gently took her by the arm, leading Krista over to the bed. She lay down slowly as he brought the blanket up to her chin. Her eyes felt heavy as he started to move away. A flash of panic washed over her as she quickly reached out, grabbing his arm.  
"Stay with me." Krista begged as she slowly pulled him under the covers with her. Sogeking had no choice, he would have rather rested on the floor or in the chair by the fire but her grip was sure and so he was only slightly unwilling to get under the covers with her. Krista moved close, pressing her ear against his chest, falling asleep to the sound of his beating heart.

Usopp awoke again, a different smell waking him as his stomach let out a disappointed growl. It was always dark when he woke up and he began to wonder if it was night time out. Krista was poking at the fire, the pot removed and put away somewhere. Usopp couldn't tell where, but it seemed the chair was put away also, leaving a big space in the middle of the room where a table and two chairs now sat.  
"I usually eat in bed, but as it seems to be occupied for a moment, I brought out the table." Usopp jumped again, not realizing that Krista knew he was awake.  
"Uhh…where did it come from?" he asked, sitting up in her bed. She brought over a large full plate of food setting it down at the table.  
"Just a slight of hand, smoke and mirrors mostly. Can you sit up ok?" she crossed over to him, as he nodded slowly. Before he had a chance to react she lifted him out of the bed and sat him down at the table. "There's all sorts of levers and pulleys by the fireplace that can pull things out and put things away. I can show you the plans for it if you wish." Krista watched Usopp as he started shoveling food into his empty gullet.  
"Amazing that you can get so much into such a small space. Where are we exactly?" Usopp asked in-between bites of food.  
"The safest place possible…underground!" Krista smiled, tapping on the wall, "this tree long ago had a huge bolder between it's roots, it took me months to dig it out but it was well worth it."  
"All by yourself?" Usopp thought about how easily she had picked him up, like he was nothing at all. Looking at her body you really couldn't tell that she had any strength at all. Her face was a bit sunken in, as if she hadn't been eating, and even though her clothes where not old, they seemed ill fitting and baggy. He then noticed that she didn't have any food before her.  
"Your not eating?" he asked slowing down with his own meal. A look of shock crossed her face as a small blush hit at the same time.  
"Ah, Usopp you gotta build up your strength first before you worry about me." she said, rubbing the back of her head as he slid his plate over to her.  
"Eat up. You can't take care of me if you can't take care of yourself." He gave her a wink as she looked down at the food that was before her. Suddenly she let out a huge laugh, leaning back in her chair. Usopp had taken his chopsticks and stuck them in his nose and lips, rolling his eyes back to show the whites. Krista kept laughing and laughing, tears pouring down her cheeks. She tossed a roll at him, turning away from the table, tears still running down her cheeks.  
"Nani….K-Krista-chan?" Usopp wanted to get up, his legs on the other hand where disobeying a direct order from his brain. Krista stood and walked over to the fireplace, her shoulders shaking but no sounds she made. Usopp looked away, wondering what in the world was going on, they stayed in silence for a while before she turned back to him, her face red but no sight of any tears.  
"S-sorry…it's just been a long time since I've had anyone be nice to me." she finally said after a long silence. She pulled out a smaller plate and scooped some food onto it, pushing the bigger one back to him. Usopp nodded, taking it back. Putting the meal into his mouth, watching her slowly eat.  
"Do you have any family?" She asked, very quietly, as if she didn't want to know the answer.  
"Only my Dad, he's a pirate." Usopp said, chomping down on a big slice of bread. "What about you?  
"Just my sisters….Older one and a little one. Haven't seen them in years though."

Ten Years Ago.

"YOU LITTLE MONSTERS!" Yelled the baker as a fourteen year old girl jumped out his window, dragging her eight year old sister behind her, running down the street, basket of muffins in her arms. "You just wait until I tell your sister about this!"  
"So you say, say you so!" the girl laughed, high fiveing her little sister as they ran out to the cliff, the Baker shaking his fists at them as they left.

Amber let out a huge sigh as she came up on her little sisters, Krista and Katlyn. The muffins they had stole had left the two full and sleepy as they napped under a willow tree on the cliff. Crumbs decorating their chins and shirts as she tossed water on them.  
"I swear you two cause more trouble then a army of raccoons." She said as the two sputtered.  
"What the fuck Amber!" Krista yelled, earning her a knock on the back of the head  
"Language! You skipped out on your lessons….AGAIN!" Amber crossed her arms as her two little sisters stood up, wringing out their shirts.  
"It was entirely her delinquency that attributed to our dissipation from our instruction!" Said Katlyn, as she wrung out a bit more water. Krista had taken off her shirt, putting it over her shoulder and she stuck her tongue out at Katlyn.  
"My fault? MY fault! How can you possible fault me for this? The sun was shining and warm, yet you fault me? The air was perked with the sweet smell of the noon day sun, yet you fault me?" Amber knocked her on the back of the head again.  
"You stole the bakers muffins and tied Mrs. Johnson up and stuck her in the closet." she grabbed Krista's shirt and pulled it down over her head. "and put your dang shirt back on!"  
"Shoulda gotten us a teacher who could fight back then…" Krista said, pulling her arms though the sleeves.  
"She's 75 Kri! You want me to have the militia sit in on every lesson?" Amber rubbed her eyes as Krista nodded. She let out a huge sigh pulling her little sisters in for a tight hug. "You girls are going to give me gray hair. Come on, you know since Momma….  
"May she quiescence in pacification…"Said Katlyn as Krista nodded.  
"Yes…so I've gotta lead this whole village by myself! With you two running around like godless heathens! I ask that you two study your lessons so that you might one day better yourselves and maybe get off of this rock. It isn't so much to ask!" The three nodded, as tears where running down their faces. They hugged tightly before sitting down to watch the sun set down into the ocean.  
"I'm going to make this place something momma would be proud of." Said Amber, putting her arms around her little sisters, "The whole world is going to want to live here."  
"I'm going to have adventures. Fight monsters, quaff ale, cavort and just have fun for the rest of my days!" Laughed Krista as Amber pushed her back, shooting her the look. "After I study and get a good education that is."  
"I do not have any formulas of what I desire to happen to me for the future…" Katlyn muttered as Amber placed a crown of flowers in her hair.  
"It's all right Kate. Your young yet, you don't need to have a plan." She said, as she hugged the little girl lovingly.  
" that's right! I mean do you really think Amber's going to let me quaff ale for the rest of my life!" Krista said sitting on the other side of the little girl. They laughed and headed home as the sun fully set over the horizon. Little did they know, how little did they know.

That night there was a banging on the door to their house. The old sooth seer had predicted that the malevolent force that had kept quite for ten years was about to be released. Amber looked blankly at the papers that where flung before her, all of them detailing how ten years prior Momma had locked the beast away, and ten years before that Grandma had, and ten years before that, and so on and so forth. The only problem was The only way this could happen is if the oldest sacrificed the youngest to the demon by the next full moon. Amber let out a sob of despair as she slowly realized that little Katlyn had to be killed to satisfy the beast. The Sooth seer, pointing out all the details in the old books, tried to calm the young chief. Little did they know that Krista had been listening, little did they know that she knew of a book that detailed how to capture the beast in a living host. How little they know as she pulled on her robe, kissed Katlyn on the forehead lightly, and set out into the night on a stolen row boat to the middle island.

Amber ran around the house for the third time that day. She had wanted to tell both her sisters that morning about what had to be done, but Krista was worryingly not there. Katlyn was sitting at the table, slowly eating breakfast when Amber finally sat down.  
"I can't find her anywhere!" She huffed, her eyes where still red from crying the rest of the night before.  
"Maybe she has ventured out?" Katlyn asked, finishing her eggs.  
"Yeah but before 8 on a Saturday?" Amber asked. Suddenly the door burst open, the whole village outside the door with the sooth seer, white with panic, at the lead.  
"My lady! Something terrible has happened. You must come to the beach at once!"

Krista stood in the boat looking at the big island. It had been a very long, very painful night, a dark force now surrounded her, as Amber and Katlyn rushed to the beach.  
"I cannot step on your land anymore, sisters." Krista yelled out. "I have caged the beast within myself."  
"Krista you idiot!" Amber screamed back, tears running down her face. Katlyn, clinging to Amber's arm, looked frightened by the aura that surrounded Krista.  
"Katlyn has a future! I'm not going to just sit by and let them kill her just because they couldn't figure out how to hold this power!" Krista's face was twisted between pain and joy. It was evil, and her eyes flashed as she pointed out the Sooth seer. "He was going to kill her!"  
"What you have done will doom us all! That beast must be banished, not captured!" He yelled, Krista smiled as she flicked her wrist, his head snapping back with a crack. He fell limp to the ground.  
"Give this up? Never. But I digress." she crossed her arms looking at Amber and Katlyn, who by now where sobbing in fear and loss of their sister. "I'll stay on the middle island. Anyone who dares to come there will be mine to do with as I please." Krista's face dropped a little, as her eyes showed such pain to her sisters. "Please realize that I have done this for you, my sisters. I have to keep you safe, no matter the cost to me." Her boat floated to the middle island, as she turned her back on her sisters. "Goodbye."

Ten Years Later.

Krista woke, tears running down her face. Usopp was asleep again as she pulled on her cloaked to go out into the night. As she ran though the forests, the demon within her tightened it's hold on her very soul that it had covered with it's black taint. She was barely able to make it out to the cliff to watch the moon rise over the waters. They had tried to get her back. Katlyn had devoted her life to finding out how to get rid of the beast, Amber had built up the city on the main island to something momma would have been proud of, though it did invite adventures and pirates into their walls. Krista kicked at a stone sending it flying down to the rough waves below. Adventures who wish to fight the monster in the middle island, pirates who where after treasure buried here, main islanders who poisoned the animals to taint the meat to kill her, botanists who suggested plants to introduce to poison her.  
"and all because I wanted to protect my sisters…." Krista said to the night air. Behind her there was a rustling in the bushes.

Usopp was able to stand today. After waking, he had tested his legs, wanting to use the restroom. He was able to get there and back, with only minimal pain. He couldn't wait to show Krista. Usopp was just getting back into bed when there was a crash against the door. Krista came tumbling in and landed on the floor face down. An arrow stuck out from behind her back, she let out a grown as Usopp rushed over as fast as he could to help her up. Krista's face was a mess. One side was turning black and blue and swelling while the other had a cut across it.  
"What happened are you alright?" He desperately asked helping her over to a stool. Krista coughed holding her broken ribs as she started taking off her cloaked and shirt, hissing as they tugged on the arrow imbedded in her meat.  
"Damn random accouters…adventures all ways looking for experience." she said, as Usopp helped her out of her shirt. Her back and chest where covered with scars and fresh wounds. She pointed over to a cabinet, that when Usopp opened it, had a large bag marked 'First Aid'. He brought it to her as she slowly took her free hand away from a huge gash in her abdomen.  
"Thanks Usopp." she said as he pulled a chair over, his face was bright red with her sitting there in only a bra and pants but the way she looked kept any other ideas from coming up.  
"What happened? Who attacked you?" He took some bandages, prepping things for her to use.  
"Adventures. They always come here, trying to kill me." She stopped him as he tried to reach for the arrow "No, that's last. It's barbed so you have to push it all the way though, like a fish hook." She took a needle and some thread, moving her glasses, sporting a crack in one frame. She squinted and put the string thought the eye pulling it tight and knotting the end. "They spend one night hearing stories in the bars and inns on the outer islands and all the sudden they want to claim some big bad beasties head. So they paddle their little boats over here and jump the first person they see."  
"But you're a girl! Not a monster…" his voice trailed off a little as he started backing up against the wall. Panic washed over his face as it slowly dawned on him. Adventure's where coming to the middle island. The middle island was home to the big bad beastie, who was known to take female form. So far Krista was the only person he met on the island. Adventure's attacked her without even asking her name, without double checking to make sure they weren't attacking a random stranger. The scars on her body told that she had been fighting for a very long time. Krista let the silence seep into her skin, her eyes closed, and her breath faint. She knew what he was thinking, they all thought the same thing weather you showed them kindness or hate.  
"Not a monster…THE monster." she said calmly, holding the needle over a candle flame nearby. "Ten years ago the sooth seer of our village told the chief, my older sister, that our line of women had been trying to be rid of the Big Bad for centuries. I had just finished a book about how to basically bottle the demon in someone. So at first chance I hopped in a boat and did the ceremony that bound the beast to my soul. Longest night of my life." she flinched a little as she plunged the now sterile needle into her skin around the gash in her abdomen. Calmly sewing herself up as an old woman works on a quilt. She felt Usopp's eyes bore into her back, his fear like small hunks of meat to the beast within her. "After I had finished I couldn't stay on the main islands, fear feeds the demon you see, the more fear concentrated in one place the stronger  
It gets. It has never escaped me as of yet though."  
"Why….why would you take such evil into yourself?" Usopp didn't know what to think, either the woman before him was unspeakably evil or there was more to the story then he thought. His words where still dripping with thoughts that she had done it for her own needs. For power that the beast brought with it.  
"I did it for my sisters. Every ten years my family was sacrificing the youngest to this beast. My little sister was only eight…But I will not lie to the fact that I did desire the power once I got it. I spent the first two years killing everyone who was on this island with my bear hands. Slaughtered them. They poisoned the animals, I found the cure. They filled it with plants that eat the unwary, I fed them the unwary. "She finished sewing up her abdomen. Taking some gauze to wipe up the blood and rubbing some alcohol on it. She then wrapped it up slowly, the cuts on her back already dried up. So only the barbed arrow remained.  
"Why did you stop?" Usopp asked shakily as he watched Krista's back rise and fall with labored breaths. She was crying, he realizes, here he was in a small room with a girl who just sewed up her own gut and yet she's crying about what she did.  
"Some pirates stopped me." She turned around expecting to see Usopp but instead was met with a man in a mask. His arms crossed, his painted eyes glaring at her. She slowly reached for a saw in the first aid kit when his hand slammed down on hers, slowly she brought her red, tear soaked face up to stare him down. Her voice never wavering, "Arrows are so hard to get out by yourself. Can you please help me?"  
"Who where the pirates?" He demanded, his eyes glued to hers' as neither of them moved.  
"Let me tell you the story then, but you have to promise to help with the arrow after." After his head bobbed in agreement she sighed and went on. "It was eight years ago…"

8 years ago.

"It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark. Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart. You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it. You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes. You're paralyzed!" Krista sang, dragging a whimpering youth behind her. She pulled him up against a tree, smiling wide as her shadow, wavered around on the ground behind her.  
"Don't be so scared, my little one." she cooed softly, pressing herself into his body. She reached out with her hand, clasping it around the young man's throat. Krista didn't even flinch as her black, inky shadow crawled up the victim, wrapping around him like a blanket. His screamed echoed though the island as the shadow devoured him.

"Please! We beg you to leave this hell for which you have come to!" The woman begged, she was bowed low on the ground, her children and elderly father stacked into a boat just on shore. The pirates looked at her; some of the crew opting to stay on bored the ship.  
"Hell? This place looks so nice though…" Red-Hair Shanks said, rubbing his chin.  
"Maybe there's a bit more to that treasure story we heard on Onee-chan and Imouto, Shanks." said the towering Benn Beckman, shouldering his Rifle, a puff of smoke wafting up from his smoke.  
"There is a monster on this island, it has ravaged us to nothing, and we are the last of the in habitants." Croaked the old man in the boat. "My son was just taken from us as we ran though the woods. His scream was what just echoed over the hills now…"  
"He. He. He. Seems we found a bit of a problem here, Captain!" Chuckled Lucky Roo, chomping down on some meat. "Seems I did hear something about a big bad beastie out here…"  
"Ohh a big bad huh?" Yasopp said, wiping his firearm. "Haven't killed one of those in years."  
"You can't kill it." the woman said hurriedly, "The sisters would have your heads!"  
"You mean those nice girls from the main islands?" Shanks asked, a little shocked, "But they welcomed us with open arms! Showed us the sights of the islands! Why would they kill us for taking care of a big bad?"  
There was a crack in the woods as a few trees fell to the ground. The woman let out a scream as she rushed to the row boat, the old man and the children rowing as hard as they could as a black shadow zoomed across the sand and waves in a straight line, grabbing onto the woman's leg, dragging her from the boat.  
"Ain't nowhere to run, Ain't nowhere to hide…" Ain't nowhere to go, Reaper's saved your soul.." sang Krista as she dragged the woman though the waves and across the sand. "Why do you want to leave me, sweet one?" She chirped as the Woman screamed in fear. Suddenly a shot rang out, the blackness shooting back to Krista's body as she hissed. Yasopp blew the smoke from the end of his gun, smiling brightly. The woman, quick to react, ran from the beach and dove into the waves, rather dealing with the monsters of the deep then Krista.  
"You're the big bad beastie huh?" Shanks chuckled, walking right across the sand to Krista. "You're about what? Sixteen?" The shadow rushed him. It's empty maw ready to eat this new prey.  
"Stop." he said. The shadow obeyed, fleeing to under Krista's feet. There where several beats of silence as the pirates walked up to Krista.  
"I….why do you not fear me?" Krista slowly sank to her knees, all her power seemingly to row away with that last family in the boat. Not a man abroad the ship before her had any fear of her. She let out a deep growl.  
"None of that now missy. We where told there's a treasure on this island, and if you would be so kind as to tell us where it is, we'll be on our merry way." Yasopp said, picking Krista up by the shirt collar. "You know, I have a son about your age…"

Sogeking looked on unfeeling as he grasped a hand on Krista's shoulder, the other firmly on the far end of the arrow.  
"Red-Haired Shanks and his crew spent a year with me. Teaching me finer points of everything they could. Such a cheerful group I do wonder what they are doing now." She said, taking a hold of her knees, white knuckled as she let out a deep sigh, "you sure you can do this? I mean its one thing to put an arrow in…"  
"Just count to three." he said, sweat beading on the back of his neck. "The sniper king will take care of this."  
"Alright, remember just push it till the arrow head comes out on this side. Those feathers on your end would make a bigger hole then there already is….one…." She said, gritting her teeth.  
"You sure this is going to work? This has got to be very painful…" Sogeking gripped the end of the arrow, ready to plunge the arrow all the way though to the other side of her body.  
"Oh I know. This isn't the first time I've had an arrow stuck in me…Two…."  
They both held their breaths as Sogeking shoved the arrow though Krista's meat. She let out a grunt as the barbs ripped though the flesh, blood spilling down her chest as the arrow head freed itself from inside of her.  
"Damnitsonofabitchmotherfucker!" she cursed, she took several breaths as the pain washed over her chest in light waves. "Ok, now just take the saw and saw off your end and I'll be able to pull it out the rest of the way on mine." Sogeking nodded as blood dripped lightly onto his hands. This was the easy part, he assured himself as the saw went smoothly though the light wood of the arrow.  
"So what happened to Usopp? Did he make a run for it on those wobbly legs of his?" Krista grasped the arrow, yanking it free as the barbs slid though. She took a moment to gasp for some air, then shock ran though her as she felt his hands tenderly pressing a prepared needle and thread to her skin. She didn't move as she felt him sew up the hole, each prick sending a shock though her spine. Never had anyone sewn her up, Krista had been alone after the Red-Haired pirates left, but here was someone she found in the woods, taken into her hide out. If he ran it would have been discovered, she had told him everything about herself. And yet right now, by the light of the fire, he was the closest thing she had to a nakama in a very long time. The silence was the worst though, as the thread was pulled though the flesh, she wondered what was on his mind.  
"Usopp isn't a very brave man." Sogeking softly said, finishing off the hole and covering it with tape and gauze. "As soon as he realized who you where he wanted to leave. To flee."  
"Wouldn't hold it against him." She responded darkly, "I am a monster."  
"No. You are a very kind girl. You took in a total stranger at a great risk to yourself. Nursed him back to health, fed him, you have shown him nothing but the kindest of natures, you are far from a monster." Sogeking moved her hand away from the other needle, taking it in her stead now coming to her front and sitting before her. Krista's face was red from such treatment and soaked with tears again as he gently wiped away the streams flowing down her face. She was in total awe as he positioned her to sit up straight as he started working on the hole in the front. She gulped watching his hands move softly across her skin; her emotions too jumbled up to even register much pain. She even felt a twitch of sadness when he was done, wishing those soft hands to be on her again.  
"Usopp…I mean sir…" She stammered to the mask, it looked up at her, his goggle eyes flashing in the fire.  
"Sogeking. My name is Sogeking." he said.  
"Sogeking…can….can you tell me if he'll come back…Usopp I mean….I want to thank him for the trust he's put in me." Krista wiped at her eyes, they burned from all the crying she had been doing lately. It annoyed her to no end.  
"He'll be back in the morning, after you get some rest." Usopp was grinning madly under Sogeking's mask. "But I do wonder, what of the beast? You said you had found a way to trap it within yourself, and then found a way to control it?"  
Krista pointed to her chest, on the right hand side there was a tattoo of a cherry blossom. "Five seals. I have five tattoos that act like corks in a bottle. The four elements, earth, wind, fire and air." She seemed proud as she showed off each of the pictures. One on each of her wrists and one on each ankle. "Not only do they keep me safe, they keep others safe. I had forgotten about the fifth one when I was a child but Shanks and his crew where able to help me get it. Once it was in place I stopped killing, and the beast was calmed." She stretched slowly, careful of the threads in her skin.  
"The Fifth element though, what is it?" Sogeking asked as Krista slowly stood up wincing.  
"Love." She said quietly, facing away from him as she rubbed her arm. "Other then my sisters that Crew was like a family to me, even if it was only for a year." There where several beats of silence as Krista waited for his response.  
"I see. Now you better be off to sleep. You must heal up so that you may help Usopp heal up." Sogeking gently took her by the arm, leading Krista over to the bed. She lay down slowly as he brought the blanket up to her chin. Her eyes felt heavy as he started to move away. A flash of panic washed over her as she quickly reached out, grabbing his arm.  
"Stay with me." Krista begged as she slowly pulled him under the covers with her. Sogeking had no choice, he would have rather rested on the floor or in the chair by the fire but her grip was sure and so he was only slightly unwilling to get under the covers with her. Krista moved close, pressing her ear against his chest, falling asleep to the sound of his beating heart.

Krista awoke with a good smell wafting out of the fire. She also heard the water running in the shower, wondering, in her state of half awake and half asleep, how Usopp looked with lather in his long black hair, water rushing over his body. She rolled onto her back, sighing gently as her mind wondered lower. In her mind, he invited her in. She felt a cold shiver down her spine as she jumped up; promptly hitting her head on a stubborn rock she had yet to dig out. She fell back onto the pillow, clutching her head and cursing loudly as the water shut off and Usopp walked out of the bathroom, latching up one side of his overalls so that Krista could se part of his bear chest. Her heart let out a THUMP.  
"Good morning Krista!" Usopp chirped, leaning over her as she clutched her forehead.  
"Good morning Usopp." she responded back, praying that he didn't ask why she was holding her forehead, or for that matter what she had thought of to make her hit her forehead.  
"I made some breakfast, if you like. You really have a unique set up here!" He motioned to the plans for the hide out spread across the table with one hand, as he finished putting on his clothes with the other.  
"Oh you could have woken me to help. I hope you didn't have to read much to find what you where looking for!" she said, moving carefully out of the bed, her body still aching from the fight yesterday, though the pain in her head seem to want to cover that up entirely.  
"I couldn't! Besides, once I started reading I just couldn't stop!" Usopp gleefully ran his hand over the floor plans "I mean you did this all by yourself and its marvelous!" Krista found herself both cursing and blushing as Usopp praised her. She listened contently as he went on, even as she stuffed breakfast into her mouth.  
"You do have to excuse me now," she said, some of the polite language drilled into her sneaking out; "I must go and change these bandages. And perhaps catch a shower." she made a stiff short bow as Usopp watched her head to the restroom. "Make yourself at home."

Usopp was really floored by the hideout. If one was to pull just a simple lever whole wardrobes seemed to pop out of nowhere! Engrossed by the plans he seemed only dimly aware when Krista left the table, but soon his ears picked up the sound of water splashing. His mind soon became obsessed with the noise as he idly wondered what Krista looked like. Sure he had seen all the scars on her chest and back last night, but her skin had been surprising soft when he sewed her up. His hands shook even now as he thought about taking the needle and thread though her skin, like it was fabric. Still thoughts invaded his mind as he tried to focus back onto the floor plans. Not an easy task for any man, let alone Usopp the Sniper king. His mind wondered back to the night, under the blankets with her so close to him. It had been hours before she had moved far enough that he could sneak out of her arms and change out of his Sogeking mask. It was only as a second thought, as he climbed back under the covers that he should have rested on the floor for the rest of the night. Krista had been so warm, Usopp had worried that she had caught a fever from all the damage she took. It wasn't so, but he still worried. A bright flush filled his face as he remembered the moments just before he fell asleep. He remembered not wanting to move his arms from around Krista, but still wanting to check her temperature. With shocking clarity he remembered leaning in close and kissing her on the forehead. Then, as he remembered it, on the cheek. Then with dread, shock, and embarrassment now plaguing his awake mind much more then his asleep brain lat night, on the lips. Usopp leaped out of his skin as Krista's hands came down on his shoulders, the blush making his face bright red.  
"Whoa, you ok Usopp? You look like you got sunburn then saw a ghost!" She said, a little gruffly. Usopp scrambled for the floor plans that now where falling slowly to the floor.  
"N-n-no! I'm fine!" he stammered. "Ahhh umm, I was wondering if we could take a walk?" Krista's head furrowed as the suggestion pricked at her ears.  
"A walk? Well, I suppose you are getting a bit of the cabin fever being stuck in here for the last few days." She stroked her chin as she reached for a leaver, giving it a tug that swung open a wall to revile a slew of weapons from swords to rifles. "I'm going heavy this time though; I don't want anything to even think about touching you." Usopp's heart thumped so loud he was afraid that Krista heard it. She had said it so simply, as if she was willing to fight hell itself to keep him safe. Suddenly, and randomly Krista walked up to him and waved her hand over her head, it connecting lightly to his nose.  
"Aw damnit why dose everyone get to be taller then me?" she demanded with a laugh. Usopp laughed also, patting her on the head.  
"You come in cute size is all?"  
"Yeah?" she scoffed, pushing him lightly up the stairs, "I'm so damn cute I'll put a foot up your ass. Move it!" They laughed until they reached the top of the stairs, where Krista suddenly grabbed Usopp's arm.  
"Two things before we go out this door. One if you meet anyone doesn't tell them you've been staying with me." Her eyes where hard as she looked into his, her whole face looking much older then she was. "And two you need this." she pulled open his hand, placing a long pointy rock attached to a string in it. "It's a lode stone. If you get lost or separated from me use this to point you back here. The entrance moves every time someone goes in and out of it so don't lose it!" Usopp nodded, placing the stone around his neck. Slowly Krista pushed open the door as bright sunlight filleted in, blinding Usopp for a second before the fresh air hit his face. He reeled back a little into Krista's waiting arms.

"Its' bright out…" He said, as she helped him out the door. The jungle surrounded them on all sides as she closed the door behind them. Krista shifted her rifle strap, it pushing into the hole in her shoulder from the arrow. Not that she cared, they where out in the open now, she was silent, curt, and hyper aware. She followed next to Usopp dimly aware of his questions.  
"This flower? What is it Krista?" He asked pointing at bluish white.  
"Dragon lily, don't get to close, everything on this island is ready and willing to kill you." She looked away, sniffing lightly at the air. "Good thing you have me here, the only thing that could possible get you is…"  
"Oh wow look at this!" Usopp shouted Krista turned fast, hand on her sword as she turned to see him poking lovingly at a huge spider. "I haven't seen one of these since I was a child!"  
"And you're going to see one that's a bit on a squished side." Krista said shaking. She HATED spiders.  
"But they aren't dangerous…" Usopp said as he let the spider crawl around his hand and up his arm, "Awww, it's even cute!" Usopp froze as he heard Krista cock a pistol and aim it at the spider.  
"That is debatable. Now squish the spider or I show you what Yasopp taught me when the Red-Hairs where here." She said, taking a step closer, "And just as a warning, I never was a good student."  
"Yasopp? He's my father!" Usopp said, gently putting the spider out of sight, Krista kept the pistol in hand though. "It's my dream to be a great man of the sea, like he is."  
"Oh he kept going on and on about you. Managed to get out of a lot of shooting lessons by getting him to talk about his son." Krista was still eyeing where the spider skittered away but they started walking away and any length of distance from a living spider was a good length of distance. The only better was standing above the corpse of a spider. The walked further on, the island seemingly quite, but the animals where still making noise so it wasn't too quite. She still walked lightly though, as Usopp came to a stop staring off into the distance.  
"But if he told you about me…" Usopp trailed off.  
"Do you really think I would bring a stranger into my hideout?" She demanded as a fog started coming in by their feet. "Of course I knew that you where Yasopp's son!" She then noticed the fog lifting up before them, a frown darkening her face.  
"Oh fuck." she said as a big grin crossed his face.  
"Luffy? Luffy is that you?" Usopp said. Before his eyes where all his crew mates! Luffy! Nami! Sanji! Chopper! Franky! Zoro! Brooks! Robin! All of them, sitting on the soft jungle floor, partying and dancing, beckoning him over. "Krista! Let me introduce you to my crew." Usopp grabbed her arm but Krista wouldn't move. Her face was dark again, as she aimed her pistol at his nakama.  
"Krista! What do you think your doing?" He demanded grabbing hold of her shirt and yanking her close.  
"What did I tell you, Usopp?" she said, as she grabbed his arm, wrenching it behind his back.  
"You…! Stop it! Those are my nakama! Their right over there!" He let out a yell as she wrenched his arm up against his back, pushing him down to his knees before his nakama.  
"Use your eyes, stupid man. Your father would talk at length about how smart you where so use that damn brain he gave you." She grabbed hold of his hair, kneeling behind him, and her cheek right against his. At that moment Usopp hated her. His nakama that Kuma had so unfeelingly scattered where right there before them. He tried to move but his arm was in such pain, she really was a lot stronger then she looked. He watched as the crew continued on, laughing and playing like they always did.  
"do you really think…." she said softly, and sadly, "you really think that if your crew saw you as you are right now they would still sit there. They would still stay in one spot if their nakama was being held back? They would hesitate to come and get you….if they where really here?" She slowly let go of him as a fog started to lift, Usopp's crew disappeared a huge plant in their place. It's gaping maw open and welcoming in any unwary visitors.  
"Trust me when I tell you that I know how you feel." she said as he slowly got to his feet, rubbing his arm.  
"But they….that plant did it all? How did it know?" He stumbled behind her as she hacked at some vines.  
"I told you. Everything on this island can and will kill you. By any means." she turned to him, her face old and dark, "When I met up with that plant you could imagine my surprised when Shanks put a bullet into my little sister's head to prove the illusion." She placed a hand on his chest for a moment, and then she grabbed hold of his overalls and yanked him down. She then covered his mouth as hushing him as the sounds of boots tromped past.  
"I can't believe they put a bounty on The Devil's head!" said a male voice. Krista was still as the bush gave both her and Usopp cover. "The Elder sent a plea to the Marines to remove it but they see the beast as too much of a threat with the time coming."

"Indeed. I only wish that I had packed more fires spells last night. In whatever form it takes it sure is hard to take down." Said a second male voice. Usopp looked at Krista as they peeked lightly though the heavy foliage. There sat four men, covered in armor and weapons, taking a rest on some rocks nearby. The last man to speak had a pointy hat and was rummaging though a bag. "Though the spell I have now is sure to take care of it."  
"Oh no! Not that 'doom train' you spent all your gold on!" Complained one with pointy ears as he pulled out an arrow from the quiver on his back. Usopp recognized it for the feathers on the end, these where the men that attacked her last night! Rage fell over him as they calmly chatted about trying to kill Krista and only her arms around him now kept him from leaping out and attacking them all.  
"True right the Doom Train!" Smiled the magic man. "And if you had poisoned the tip of your arrows like I told you too we would have at least the chance to find her throwing up or something somewhere!"  
"You know it's expensive to find a poison it's not immune to!" Complained the elf, holding an arrow to an eye, "besides these barbed ones worked really well last time."  
"Not as well as my sword to its gut though!" Laughed a huge man, pulling out his sword. "I wish it would have stayed still though. I wanted to see its blood run."  
The three men laughed as the fourth stayed silent, watching the small area where Krista and Usopp hid. His eyes connected with Krista's as he slowly pulled out a dagger.  
"Quite all. I think we might have some company." He said, bringing it out fully. "You have nothing to fear, if you're not the Big Bad Beastie, that is."  
Krista let go of Usopp, her eyes never leaving the eyes of the skinny man who spoke. It took all of Usopp's will power not to jump out and attack the men. As he slowly rose though, in his mind he seemed to feel Krista reminding him not to tell the men that he was with her. The men relaxed when they saw him, and he stepped away from the jungle.  
"Well! You're a new face; we must have just missed you from the main islands!" Said the spell caster, walking right up to Usopp slinging his arm around his shoulder. Usopp gulped and almost took a look back at the jungle where Krista was. An urgent feeling told him not to though as the men shook his hand.  
"I'm Handyor, the spell caster." said the tall man, pushing his pointy hat back. "This is Tengu the Elf, Roarge the swords man and our leader…"  
"Puck." said the cat like man, slipping his dagger back into its sheath. "You gave us a small thrill there, boy, we where expecting the Big Bad again."  
"My name is Usopp." Usopp felt wrong shaking Puck's hand. For the amount of evil that was trapped inside of Krista, this man made him very uneasy.  
"First time on the island, huh friend?" asked Handyor, taking out a flask of water and handing it to him.  
"Yes. I heard the Big Bad had a bounty put on and wanted to throw my hand in at trying to get it." Usopp lied. Someone had said that it was harder to lie to your friends then your enemies, and Usopp was about to put all his skill as a liar to the test. "I'm a sniper, so I thought it would be easier to find if I stayed hidden."  
"And with all the poor luck you found us, eh?" laughed Roarge, quaffing some wine. "Well maybe if we stick together the Big Bad will come out of its hiding place and bless us with a good battle!"  
"Say Friend, where are you from?" Puck asked. Usopp didn't like answering his questions; he had a feeling like Puck could see right though him.  
"Ahh…East Blue." Usopp stammered. Puck was looking right into his eyes, the black pupils seeming to grow larger as he stared.  
"So far from home? What has brought you all the way here to the Grand Line?" Puck's voice seemed to be all around Usopp as he asked his questions.  
"I'm on a quest to fulfill my dream of becoming a great man of the sea." He said. His head growing fuzzy as Puck began to pull away. A sneaky smile on his face.  
"A grand quest indeed! Would you like to join us for a bit Usopp? The darkness of night will be upon us soon and we shall have to make camp. This is a very dangerous island for anyone who doesn't know how to deal with the Big Bad." Puck put his arm around Usopp's shoulders as he pulled him over to the rocks. Tengu had started a fire in the middle of them and Roarge had already fallen asleep.  
"They say there is a sure fire way to get the Big Bad out." laughed Handyor, thumbing though a very large book. "They say it's attracted to singing and joy because it's been so lonely for so long."  
"Makes you feel sorry for her doesn't it?" Usopp asked a little darkly.  
"Not in the slightest." growled Puck tossing a blanket at Usopp. "That creature slaughtered every human on this island for fun. It ravaged families, killing whole households for its own pleasure." He sat down pulling a cigarette to his lips, taking a deep puff. "No matter what the sisters say, that beast is just that, a beast."  
Usopp lay against a rock, pulling the blanket on top of him. Handyor was grinning as Tengu strummed on a small lute.  
"Yes call the beast out again! I've got the perfect spell for it!" He said, as he reached into the fire and pulled out a small flame. With a few waves of his hand it became a small fire girl, dancing about with the music.  
"It will come again. Last night we where lucky, catching it off guard." Puck looked at Usopp, his grin wide. "Tonight, we might try a little bait…" Usopp gulped, feeling the heavy lode stone against his chest.  
"What do you mean…?" He slowly asked, as Tengu strummed on his lute.  
"Well, Handyor isn't all wrong saying that you can call it out by music. It just has to be the right song." he nodded to Tengu, who started up a slow beat. "You see, not many people know, but in order for the beast to bind itself to its host a song must be chosen to seal the pact. The poor sister who that beast took over chose a song, but there is another that if you where to sing it the beast would have to come out. It taunts the beast, you see." Usopp's face went white as Puck stood up, placing a hand to his ear as to Usopp's horror Krista's voice began singing. It filled the jungle around them as she sweetly sang along with the lute.  
"Think of me, think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye. Remember me once in a while - please promise me you'll try. When you find that, once again, you long to take your heart back and be free - if you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me…" She sang, slowly appearing from behind a tree. The men jumped up, moving into their attack formation. "It's not really a random encounter if you use something to draw me out, Puck."  
"You know there's nothing fair about any of this, Beast." Puck drew his dagger, while the others prepared for attack. "Now change. You know how I feel about fighting you in that form."  
"No." She said, drawing her sword. "And you can stop those mind tricks, if you wish to fight me; you fight me as I am."  
"As you are? Then I would be fighting the Demon of Destruction itself if you where to fight as you are!" he held up his hands to the disappointment of the other men. "I won't have a bunch of thugs beating up on such a girl though." Suddenly there was a whistle in the air as a smoke bomb exploded on the ground.  
"What in the world…Dirty tactics? After it you fool!" Puck cried as he looked up into the trees to see where the projectile had come from. Sogeking hid behind the trunk of the closest tree as he watched Krista escape into another tree. He let out a deep sigh when suddenly Puck's knife was at his throat.  
"Why did you do that you fool! She escapes into the very earth itself!" He hissed stabbing Sogeking in the shoulder. He let out a cry as Puck fell to the ground. Krista jumped to Sogeking's branch, removing the knife and shouldering him.  
"Come on we have to get out of here before they get back!" She demanded, holding on to him as they jumped down, a door below them as they fell into the hideout underground.  
"Never mind me, are you ok? How did you get back without them seeing you?" He asked as Krista rushed for the first aid kit.  
"I know this island better then they know their own dicks. Now shut up! Puck has poison on every blade he owns." She quickly covered the wound with a cloth grabbing a vile from a shelf. "Drink this. It's the ultimate antidote. Took me years to get every known poison together to make it but it works fast and hard." Sogeking drank as much as he could, it tasted sour and nearly choked him with how thick it was but soon he was feeling better as Krista wrapped up his shoulder.  
"Damnit why did you do that?" She demanded angrily, "Now Puck knows you're in with me!"  
"What was I supposed to do, just let them kill you?" He demanded back, frown crossing his face.  
"Yes if need be! Stupid man you where supposed to stay safe!" She punched his chest, away from the wound, but it still hurt. Usopp rubbed it, glaring her down.  
"They would have figured it out anyway if I didn't attack you! Is that what you wanted, me to attack you?"  
"I can take care of myself!" she growled, punching him again.  
"By hiding all the time! Not that it works considering they can make you come out of hiding with a SONG! You where nearly dead last night from them!" He grabbed her hands before she could punch him again.  
"And you would have died right now for that stunt! Just who the hell do you think you are defending me?"  
"YOUR DAMN NAKAMA!" Usopp screamed at her. They both where panting at this point as Krista stood up and walked away. Suddenly she let out a roar as she punched a block of dirt out of the wall, it scattering all over him.  
"I. didn't. Ask. You. To. Be. My. Nakama." she said though her teeth. Pulling a leaver she opened a door that led to somewhere as Usopp brushed the dirt off his shirt. Taking off his mask he leaned his head down into his chest and felt tears run down his cheeks. No, she didn't ask him to be her nakama. She hadn't asked for him to stay here either, but he was doing both. Slowly he stood up, the antidote and poison almost hitting at the same time. He wobbled over to the chair next to the fire and put his hand to his forehead, tears still freely running. From the other room he heard crashes and curses, growls and roars, but didn't bother to get up to see if Krista was ok. If the hole in the wall said anything about the state of mind she was in right now it was for the best that he sat right there until she was done. Slowly the crashes became less and less as so did his tears. He heard her foot steps as he slowly looked up to her. She was standing at the first aid kit again, her hands all bloody from whatever she had been doing. She was cleaning them off and wrapping them up.  
"I'm sorry." she said simply, shattering the silence of the room. "I…I just wanted to keep you safe."  
"I would never hurt you, even at the cost of myself." he said, standing up. She didn't move as he walked to her, half way though another wrap on her fists. She kept very still watching him as he crossed the room, slowly putting his arms around her, his cheek pressed lightly against hers from behind. Krista gulped, finishing her hand, but not moving away.  
"Don't say it." She said her body tense at his touch. "Don't you dare say it? I couldn't handle it if you did."  
"It wouldn't be a lie…" Usopp took a chance, he pressed his lips softly onto her neck, and she moved her neck to accommodate his long nose. Her skin flinching as he kissed it.  
"Don't say it." she begged as he slowly turned her around. Krista's eyes where brimming with tears as he leaned in close.  
"It wouldn't be a lie…" he said again, "You've been so kind…"  
"Don't say it."  
"You're not a monster…." He said, pushing her hair to one side. "Krista…."  
"Damnit Usopp!" she placed her head on his chest, "Damnit…why did you have to come here? Now of all times, here of all places." Krista breathed hard, trying to hold her tears back. They stayed silent for a very long time; Usopp wrapped his arms around her, her breathing slow and deep.  
"Krista…" Usopp started again, but when he looked down she was asleep in his arms. "It's been really hard for you hasn't it?" He smiled as he half carried; half pulled her over to the bed, lying down with her. He pushed her hair out of her face.  
"And don't you dare think about kissing me again." Usopp jumped as looked frantically around the room. Krista was asleep in his arms and yet he had heard her as if she was wide awake. Settling down again His eyes became heavy as sleep over took him.

In the middle of the night, they both awoke. Various aches and pains drifting though their systems.  
"You awake?" Krista asked softly. The embers of the fire barely lit the room as Krista took in a deep breath, smelling gunpowder. It was only a little while later that she realized it was Usopp she smelled.  
"Yes." He said, rolling to face her.  
"Why haven't you run away yet?" She asked still softly, he had his arms wrapped around her. Usopp's eyes where soft as he touched her face with his finger tips.  
"I'm not afraid of you." He answered her back. Even in the dim light he could see her look of amusement and disbelief.  
"Liar. You're so frightened of me that you had to have Sogeking sew me up." she looked away a little as Usopp scrunched up his face.  
"I had just pushed and arrow though you. I was more worried then frightened." He nodded. Suddenly she was on top of him, her forehead scrunched up in bemusement. Her eyes where scanning his face as if trying to find any hint that he wasn't telling the truth.  
"How can you care so much for me? I've told you what I did; I told you who I became. Dose it not frighten you that I might turn back into that?" She demanded. Still Usopp looked on her kindly, a smile across his lips.  
"Not in the least. Ahh you've been so nice to me Krista-chan! It's impossible to think of you as a monster!" Usopp was glad for the darkness, anything to hide the blush he had as Krista straddled him, poking at his sides.  
"Nice? Nice! You're only a little pay back for those pirates who took care of me as a child! I wouldn't have given you a second thought if not for the fact that your Yasopp's' son!" Krista's grin was bright as she attacked his sides, tickling him in the darkness. Usopp let out a laugh trying to squirm away from her.  
"You're telling me you would have left me out in that jungle if you didn't know me?" He laughed, grabbing hold of her hands. Krista's head tilted to one side as she was now glad for the darkness, sticking her nose up in the air, she let out a disapproving sniff.  
"Why would I let such a silly man into my hideout?" she said, unconvincingly aloof, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I mean all you got going for you is your looks and if I was one to judge a person only by their looks I sacredly would thought of bringing you in at all…" Usopp clapped a hand to his chest.  
"Oh such a deep wound you give me, woman! You've cut me to my very heart!" He laughed rolling over onto his stomach under her, poking at his pillow. "I would have thought you cared for me just a little bit…" He said, in such a pitiful tone of voice that it caught Krista off guard.  
"Oh Usopp, I do care for you!" She said leaning over his back, Usopp turned his face from her, his long hair blocking her view.  
"No. I won't believe you. Such a pretty girl cares for the likes of me? Nonsense. Not even a liar like me can believe that story." Usopp smiled as he kept hiding his face from her, letting out a sigh.  
"Usopp! Come on… You know even if I don't say it you are very dear to me! Why in the world do you think I went heavy when we went out today? I had Puck in my sites just when he stared playing that damn song! Although…" a worried smile crossed her face as she got right next to his ear, "I'm not such a good marksman as some people." She was caught off guard again as he rolled over, almost hitting the rock above the bed again, Usopp had the biggest smile on his face as he grabbed onto her hips.  
"If I am very dear to you then say it!" He said, Even in the dark he could see how bright red her face was.  
"OH come on! I just said it a few seconds ago!" She complained, blushing brightly as he shook his head.  
"That's all very well and good for a few seconds ago…" He teased, grinning up at her, "But I would like to hear you say it again now!"  
"Youareverydeartome. There I said it." She tried to move, but he kept her in place.  
"Only very dear to you? You're my nakama, which means your special!" His smile was wide as she punched lightly at his unhurt shoulder.  
"Fineyourmynakamatoonowletmego." She said hurriedly, she put her hands on either side of his head, trying to lift her self off him. Usopp kept a tight hold on her hips; he figured if she really wanted to get off of him she could at any time.  
"No, you could get off me at any time. We both know how much stronger then me you are. So why don't you tell me the Truth?" He very much enjoyed the look she gave him. Somewhere between wanting to murder him and wanting to murder him. Krista hung her head, defeated by that damn long nose as she lay down on his chest, close to his face.  
"You want the truth?"  
"Yes."  
"The whole truth?"  
"Yes."  
"And if I tell you, will you let me go?" She demanded her forehead wrinkled.  
"Depends on the truth." He smiled, his eyes looking into hers. Krista let out a sigh, closing her eyes and closing the gap between them.  
"You think it's that easy huh? Well you can just hold your damn breath all night for all I care." She said looking away. "Damn long nose…sticking it where it doesn't belong…" She went on muttering to herself, much of it curses, She sat up straight on him again as Usopp grinned up at her.  
"It's very simple. Just tell me what I want to hear!" He laughed, her eye twitched as her nose wrinkled into a growl.  
"Fine, you're a damn bastard now let me go." She said it was a mistake to look back at his face; Usopp seemed to be pulling out all the tricks as bit his lower lip looking down.  
"You really see me that way? After all we've been though together?" He slowly looked up to her, trying hard to suppress his grin.  
"Usopp…"her face soft before a flash of realization hit, "waaaait just a second! Ohh no! No! No! No! A thousand times No! I'm not going to let some random pirate get that from me!" She crossed her arms as Usopp pouted. He really wanted her to say it, because of all this banter he knew that she was thinking it. Usopp decided to have a little fun with this then; He pushed his hips up into her, holding her in place. Krista let out a little noise falling forward onto Usopp's chest, where he wrapped his arms around her.  
"That….really wasn't fair…" she whispered, her chest aching softly, "All of this isn't fair. And you know it's not."  
"Krista, you know how I feel yet you wont' let me say it. So I want you to say it because I have a feeling that you feel the same for me too." Usopp pulled her up a bit, bringing his lips to her forehead softly.  
"It can't be this simple. It's never this simple." She muttered. Her face red and hot as he brushed his hand against it.  
"And why can't it be? Why can't it be, for right now, just two people, in the dark, telling each other how they feel?" his heart pounded hard in his chest, nearly leaping as she touched it softly to her lips.  
"Then for right now I guess that we are just two people. No monsters, no masks, just two people, right?" She was shaking so hard, her whole body seemed ready to leap away at any given moment.  
"Usopp I Love You." She confessed, her lips gently touching his. Before she could pull away though, Krista felt Usopp's hand on the back of her head. He drew her into a deep, tight kiss. They stayed like that for a while, Usopp's hands slowly running down Krista's back. It took so much strength not to cry all over him, tingles washed over her.  
"I Love You, Krista." He said as they stayed only a breath away from each other. She sighed, laying her head into the crook of his neck.  
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into." She warned.  
"That's half the fun of it all." He said. Then, held tightly against each other, sleep eased back upon them.

The morning came slowly, and too soon for Krista as she woke up with Usopp on top of her.  
"Good Morning!" He churped, but before she could respond he planted a deep kiss on her lips. That woke Krista right up, as she faded into the kiss. It was a long time before Usopp moved away, takeing her breath away with him. He climbed out of the bed as Krista sat up dumb founded.  
"Is…Is that my apron?" she managed, noticing the god-aweful flower pattern as something she buried in her drawrs long ago. Usopp blinked a few times before rubbing the back of his head laughing.  
"Yeah, I found it in the back of a drawer; I had been looking for the kitchen stuff and pulled the wrong lever." Krista let out a small laugh, putting her hand on her chin.  
"Really now…? And one would just have to ask how long you where digging in that particular drawr for..?" She grinned as Usopp's face grew more and more stiff stuck in a grin. "I thought I had left it in the bottom drawr of my clothing if I remember correctly… but the only things I have in that drawr are underwear and bras." Her grin seemed to want to strech Off of her face as Usopp quickly turned to the pot, swishing at the liquid inside. Swinging her legs slowly over the bed, she winced pulling herself up. Yes, there was a reason to distract Usopp away from her, she hated being weak before him and if he had known that she was in such pain she had no doubt that he would have been there fawning over her. She limped over to the restroom, slowly turning the shower on and stripping out. Her body was black and blue where it wasn't sewn up. She slowly took of the bandages, examining the stitches. The ones on her stomach where ready to pull out as she reached up to the mirror grabbing apair of scissors. She turned on the water, the steam filling up the bathroom quickly as she stripped down to nothing. Takeing the scissors slowly she started cutting at the thread that had kept her sewn up, Krista hated doing it. It always gave her the feeling of being a doll that was cutting itself open when she did, but then again the thread wasn't biodegradable so she had to take them out before the skin healed over it. Only had to have that happen three times before she got a hang of it. She sighed slowly pulling out the thread, little beads of blood welling up as she did.  
"Fuck that stings." she muttered to herself as she finished her abdomon, looking to her shoulder she noticed those had to come out too. She snipped slowly at the ones on her frount, pulling out the thread just as before. Usopp had done a good job considering what it must have been like to do that to her. She glanced in the mirror and sighed at the scars all over her body. Not one was from a friendly, save from the cherry blossom the Red-Hairs had tattooed on her chest for her. She had wanted a tattoo just like their jolly rodger, so that she could always remember them, but Yasopp had shot her down.  
"You're supposed to remember our love, not us. That's what he said isn't it?" she thought out loud, a smile coming to her face. She reached to her back but it did her no good. She would have to get Usopp to cut the ones on her back, though she knew he would hate doing it. The restroom air was good and thick now as she eased herself into the shower, winceing again as the hot water took care of the bruses on her body. Before she could stop herself though she had slid down to the tub, almost hitting her head on the way, tears streaming down her face. 'Last night wasn't a dream, was It.' she scolded herself, 'what was I thinking?'  
"And I would do anything for love!" Belted a voice, it had been ten years since Krista had jumped at that voice, but she did it now, to her shame.  
"Heya Toots! Missed me?" asked the voice, sickening Krista with every syslable.  
"You. I'm going to bury you in the ground where you belong." She hissed though her teeth at nothing.  
"Oh, these good ten years have been trying, sure the first two where fun but after that damn man helped you it was nothing but boreing year afer boreing year." it brushed past her ear and neck, causing her to shiver with it's cold touch. "It dosnt' surprise me at all that you fell for his son though. They could practacaly be twins, if it whern't for that ugly nose!" it turned the water into Krista's face, making her sputter and rush to turn it off.  
"You don't know a damn thing, not a damn thing, vile spirit!" She cursed as the air filled with its laughter.  
"I know how you felt for Yasopp. I know how you wished that he could have just forgotten his wife and son and stayed you. Oh what a dramatic turn this is that his SON comes to replace him! "It took a slight form in the steam in the rest room, its face laughing manically, "I love you Usopp, and I love you Krista. Makes me sick listening to you two tell such lies to each other!" Krista roared picking up a soap dish flinging it at the shade. Bearly missing Usopp as he stepped into the restroom, his eyes covered.  
"Krista…is everything alright?" he asked, looking down at the shatterd dish, teatering back and forth on the floor.  
"Get out of here!" Krista screamed, her heart pounding in her chest. "Get out of here or I swear I'll make you regret it! " Every thing was still for a moment, Krista panting and the soft click of the door closeing, the evil shades' laughter echoing in her ears.

Usopp was over by the pot again, this time cleaning it out as Krista stormed past, bearly pulling a shirt on. She was silent as she tugged at a lever, a dresser popping out of the wall as she grabbed some pants and socks.  
"You alright, Krsita?" he asked shaky. She slammed the dresser drawr, reaching out for her cloak.  
"Yes. Fine." she said quickly, pulling another lever for her wepons to pop out. She started loading up on them, covering most of her body with pistols and daggers.  
"What are you doing?" He asked as she silently loaded up.  
"Out." She said. Pulling the lever again. Usopp grabbed his bag, carefuly shouldering it.  
"Alright! Where are we going too?" Usopp bumped into Krista's back as she stood still in the door way, slowly she turned around, her face dark and angry.  
"WE?" she demanded, her voice seeming to push him back. "We are not going anywhere. You are going to stay in one spot for once so I don't have to worry about your damn ass." She pushed him back with her arm till he was sitting in the chair.  
"What about you? You're not going out there alone!" Usopp grabbed her hand to keep her from going. It seemed like slow motion as she pivitied her body around, slapping him soundly on the face. Usopp fell to the floor with a crash, laying there.  
"Shut up." she hissed, her face like stone as she watched him slowly look up at her. Before he could get all the way up she spun around and ran out the door, slamming it behind her. Usopp stayed on the floor, dumbfounded to what had just happened. His face stung as a big red mark started showing on it. It took him a few moments to sit up, and a few more to collect his thoughts about what happened. None of it made sence, she had seemed really fine with what happened last night, she had been talking to herself in the rest room and then…the image of the shatterd soap dish flashed in his mind. Surely she couldn't be mad tha he checked in on her, he didn't peek or anything! Something deeper had to be going on, he thought, pulling himself up, and he had to find out what. He shoved his lode stone into his shirt, shouldering his bag again. Slowly he pulled on Sogeking, striking a pose.  
"Don't worry; I'm going to help you." Usopp said to himself mostly, opening the door. Suddenly behind him a book fell from a shelf. Usopp jumped at the sound, slowly looking behind him. There wasn't anyone there, but a bright red book beckoned him from across the room. He walked over leaning down slowly taking it into his hands.  
Diary.  
Usopp looked from sided to side before opening the book, scanning over each page, trying to ignore how some had drops of blood crusted on them. It was Krista's Diary, from just after she took the beast into her to just after he landed on the island. He sat down cross legged as he read a few pages.  
"I can't lie to you; I hate what I've become. But how to stop it? That I don't know. The book offers no insight of this and it seems a few pages where ripped out. This might have been a mistake." Krista's hand writing was shaky, as if she was really scared, "It talks to me constantly, praising me for all those people I killed." He flipped a few more pages over; her hand witling became more sure of itself. "Today Some pirates landed on the island. I felt the shade become weak in the very presence of Red-Haired Shanks. They asked me where the treasure was on the island. I'm not going to tell them. How dare they think they can come here and order me around!" A few more pages turned, Usopp feeling like he had finally found something that could tell him all about Krista, if she wasn't willing to tell it herself. Suddenly His eyes became wide reading a page. Over and over he read it, his heart breaking with the words. He shoved the book into his bag, shouldering it. Now he needed more answers, he thought as he ran out the door to try to find her.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Krista kept punching into a tree, her hands long bloodied and in pain but she didn't care.  
"Ha! Oh what have you become, Krista? You really knocked him flat on his ass!" the shade laughed, as she keept punching at the tree. "I told you it was a lie. How could you do that to someone you love?"  
"Shut up you demon! Any thing you say is a pure lie!" she yelled at the trees, taking her pistol out. "I will put you in the ground, I will BURY YOU!"  
"Dig your own grave, human!" The shade laughed, taking control of her shadow, "you will never be free of me and I will control every little thing you do."  
"Be Silent!" She exploded, punching at the shadow. It easly evaded, laughing at her the whole time.  
"Be careful, human, your making enough noise for anyone to find you." it laughed again as Krista quickly jumped, a hole in the ground where she was standing.  
"You shouldn't have moved, beast." Puck's voice said as he quickly reloaded. Krista got a shot off with her pistol, blowing the cover the men had gotten.  
"I am in no mood for you, Puck!" she said, replacing her pistol and pulling another. This shot hit the swordsman right in the center of the skull. He dropped to the ground as the elf took aim with his arrow, letting one fly. Krista jumped to one side but landed right in the middle of a fire spell that burst in her face. Letting out a yell Puck came runnig at her, his knife drawn as she ducked under it, stabbing him in the thigh.  
"No dirty tatics this time? Did you eat that poor boy that saved you?" Puck asked sliceing into her arm, Krista let out a yell, pulling away before he could cut off the musle.  
"You're the one that poisens all your blades, Puck. How do you think he faired?" She bearly had time to duck before another arrow flew out from the thicket; she took aim catching the elf in the chest. He fell back with a thud onto the soft jungle floor. Puck lundged at her again, blades in both hands now as he stabbed them into her back.  
"You die here monster!" he said as she coughed hard on the ground. He backed off as she slowly stood up, yanking one of the knifes from her back.  
"Not today, Puck. Not by your hand." she rushed him, slashing at his eye as she was able to draw one more pistol out, shooting the spell caster as he hit her with another fireball. Puck fell back as Krista layed there, coughing more as her body shifted into a giant black beast. He watched as it slowly enveloped her, suddenly her eyes opend and she screamed as the black bile pulled itself back into her body. She yanked the other dagger out of her body, throwing them at Puck's feet.  
"I'll kill you!" he screamed as she walked away, "I'll hunt you until you breathe your last!" Krista sprinted away, hideing deep in the jungle as she bled. She coughed a few times, leaning against a tree as she opened up the hideout door, slowly decending the stairs. She only hoped that Usopp was asleep or other wise occupied. She stumbled in, grabbing for the antidote on the shelf, swallowing the thick stuff before the poisen could get to her. She tossed her cloake away, taking off her shirt as she hissed as the soft fabric scrapped against the open wounds. Slowly she took out the first aid kit, wrapping herself up again. The good news was nothing was too deep this time, she touched her face. She had gotten pretty bad burns on her cheek and neck, and she winced as she slopped some salve on it, wrapping it up.  
"You've noticed havn't you?" the shade asked, dancing in the firelight. "He's not here."  
"I wouldn't blame him though." She said, leaning back in the chair. "Maybe I am a monster."  
"You know it! One Big Bad Beastie!" It laughed at her as the door banged open, Usopp wondering down the stairs; Krista lifted her head up, holding an ice pack to the covered burn.  
"Usopp? I thought you left."  
"I did. Something told me to come back though." He said. He threw a book at her, it sliding on the floor. "Your book, I would assume." Krista let out a chuckle, and winced picking up the book. It was her diary that she had kept almost up to this day.  
"What of it?" she said, reaching behind her to grab some water. "It's my diary."  
"So you mind explaining what exsatly went on between you and my father that year the Red-Hairs where on your island." Usopp demanded, pulling a chair up before her.  
"I don't owe you anything." She sneered, throwing it back at him. It bounced off his chest harmlessly as he looked her square in the eyes. "But judging by the way your acting you want another story huh?"  
"I want answers." He said, leaning back in the chair. Krista let out a deep sigh as she moved the ice bag from her face looking into the fire.  
"Then let's go back, Usopp. Let's go back those eight years ago."

8 years ago….again….

"No! Now pay attention!" Yasopp demanded, as Krista missed the straw dummy again. "You want to aim from your shoulder, not your elbow!"  
"Yasopp, I'm not going to get it!" She wined as she dropped her arm, sore from holding the pistol. "Why can't I just send the shade to go rough him up if I'm so intent on killing him?"  
"Because the more you depend on that evil thing the stronger the hold it'll have on you." He sighed putting a hand to his forhead, watching as she spun the pistol around. "Come on now, you would get it if you paid attention!"  
"I would get it if it wasn't so hard to learn…" she mumbled, suddenly a grin came to her face, "I bet your boy would have gotten this by now, he is your son." Her grinn became wider as Yasopp started glowing with fatherly pride, closeing his eyes and placeing his hand on his chin.  
"Oh yes, my boy would have known how to shoot from two oceans away before he could even walk!" Yasopp opened his eyes to continue, but Krista had disappeared. "Huh? What? Not again! Get back here and finish your lesson you brat!"  
Krista was only a little bit away when she ran into Lucky Roo, falling to the ground as the man picked her up by the waist, carrying her back to Yasopp. "Now, now, girly. Your sisters asked us to teach you how to defend yourself. We can't go back on a promise like that, not after all the berries they paid up frount for it."  
"But Roo I'm no good at shooting! Swords no problem, running away even better, but shooting?" She complained as Lucky Roo dumped her at Yasopps feet. Yassop grinned, sqating down to look her in the face.  
"Now then, are you going to finish your lesson?" Yasopp grinned, holding out the pistol.  
"Yes Yasopp…" She said her brow furrowed in anger.  
"And I've just figured out a way to keep you in one damn spot." He held up some leg irons attached to a heavy ball and soon she was standing before the target again, abeit down trodden and pouty.

A few weeks later, she was almost getting it. 'If Mrs. Johnson had tried to teach me this way, maybe I wouldn't have run off so often.' Krsita thought as Yasopp pat her on the back again.  
"You're getting a pattern there. Why do you always shoot 'Head, heart, something vital but survivable'? The point of having a pistol isn't to threaten with it, it's to use it." He said, Krista mumbled something as he moved close to her, positioning her arm again. "Now then, you just have to keep trying."  
"Yasopp, the end of this week is my birthday." Krista blirted out. Yasopp blinked a few times as the girl shot at the straw dummy again. "And I'm warning you, don't you guys go making some big deal out of it. It's just another day, in my book." Yasopp grinned as he messed with Krista's hair, seeing her face as a giant blush.  
"Alright, just another day, I'll pass it on to the crew." He grinned as he had to reposition her arm again. "What would you like for that day that is just like any other day?"  
"I would like to be able to shoot strait for once." She mumbled as Yasopp planced an arm over her shoulders. Her heart thumped as he went on explaining how to shoot strait.

The end of the week came, Krista rolled out of the tree she was sleeping in above the camp the pirates had built in the middle of the jungle. She landed on Yasopp, as she had been doing for the last few months.  
"Krista, I must ask you again, why is it every damn morning you fall out of the same damn tree right on top of me?" He asked, as Krista grinned at him.  
"If you don't like it you could aways move your tent, then I'd be hitting the ground and would have to be more careful." She grinned as Yasopp rolled his eyes sholdering the girl on his back.  
"You know that wouldn't work. It didn't work the last two times I did it!" They laughed as Yasopp carried Krista over to breakfast. The day moved forward just as Krista had asked it too. No one wished her a happy birthday, there was nothing special for breakfast and the triaing was just the same as every other day. At the end of the day Krista found herself sighing as she sat on one of the many Cliffs, looking out to sea.  
"I know very well that I said that they shouldn't make a big deal out of it…" she mumbled to herself. "Stupid men, don't they know that when a girl says that she doesn't want them to make a big deal out of it they should make an even BIGGER deal out of it!" Suddenly a bag went over her head and she was roughly dragged though the jungle. When it was taken off the crew where standing before her, mugs of ale and a small cake as they cheered and partied. Not like the crew had a need for something to partie about, but tonight was spechal. Krista was developing feelings for her teachers, but non more so then Yasopp. It was almost daylight when Yasopp took her to his tent.  
"I told them it wasn't a good idea to give you ale…" he mumbled as she let out a laugh.  
"'m not gonna fall outta my tree, Yasopp! And 'sides you always catchme!" Krista flung her arms back as Yasopp caught her from falling. "Shee?"  
"I wish you wouldn't sleep in the tree anymore." He said as they sat down, He put her head on his lap grabbing a water skin. "You should drink something, just beaceause it was your birthday you still have lessons to learn tomorrow. You're hard enough to teach without having a hangover." Krista drank some of the water, making herself comfortable on his lap.  
"Yasopp, I hope you never leave." She said, wipeing her mouth.  
"We have to, Krista. We've already been here too long…." Yasopp said, rubbing the back of his head. Suddenly Krista was sitting in his lap, her hands on either of his shoulders.  
"Not the crew." She said, her face full of drunken seroiseness, "You. I don't want you to leave me."  
"Krista, your drunk. And too young. I have a wife, a son! I have to leave here." He said Krista just hugged him around the neck, pressing her hot cheek against his.  
"'m not, 'm not. It's my heart speaken. I'm in love with you Yasopp. You're like my hearts desi- desireable."  
"And you're like a Daughter to me! Now stop this foolishness." Yasopp took a hold of her wrists, pulling Krista off of him. Tears started running down the seventeen year olds face, as she bit her lower lip.  
"I can't help how I feel." she said sadly. Yasopp let out a sigh, letting her lay on his chest.  
"Krista, I know that you think you're in love with me, but your not. You're just holding on to us because we love you, like a daughter I might add. You're afraid of us going because you don't want to be alone anymore, and that's fine. The hard fact is we have to leave and you have to be alone." He rubbed her hair and her back as she cried into his chest. She was afraid of being alone, but that couldn't be all could it? This feeling in her chest was mutch bigger then loseing a bunch of pirates.  
"Yasopp, I want to give you it." She said quietly. Yasopp froze panic sweeping his face.  
"I won't take that from you. Now go to sleep." He said sternly.  
"I want to give it to you though, won't you let me?" she brought her head up looking angrily at him, "If you won't take it I'll see if one of the other men will, they've been trapped here on this island with me for this long, you don't think I've noticed how they look at me sometimes?"  
"Now you listen here! That isn't something you just give away to anyone! You have to wait till it's someone special to come along!" Yasopp demanded, holding the girl by her shoulders.  
"You're not special?" She whispered. Yasopp let out an exaused sigh as he looked Krista in the eyes.  
"How about this. If I take your first kiss will you be quite? Will you never speak of this nonsense of givinging it away anymore? And with you absolutely promise me that you will wait untill the right man comes along for you to give it to?"  
"Yes." she said eagrly. Yasopp frowned as he brought her close to him, kissing her firmly on the lips. Krista became limp in his arms as he did, letting out a content sigh when they where finished.  
"Now, little girl, go to sleep." Yasopp said, holding her in his arms as she drifted out into dream land.

"The next month they had set sailed, and I haven't seen them from that time to this." Krista said drinking some tea she had made during the story. "Needless to say from that time to this I've kept my promise to your father." Usopp slowly drank some tea she had givin him, setting his cup down on the table.  
"By the way you where writeing…"  
"I sounded like I found the one, right? Well, your father was right. I wasn't really in love with him. I was just your average lonely girl latching onto her father figures." she slowly put her tea down on the table, lightly smiling. Suddenly Usopp stood up, pulling Krista out of her seat.  
"Earlier, what was that? Are you mad at me for checking up on you?" he demanded, his grip relaxing as she winced.  
"No, no…the shade was annoying me. It was trying to get into my head and it worked." she let out a sigh, taking hold of his arms, "It's been almost ten years…"  
"The ceremony? You have to do it again, soon…?" Usopp asked. She slowly nodded as he drew her in for a tight hug. "I'm here."  
Krista slowly kissed on Usopp's neck; a blush filled his face as she did. "I know. You're here and I want to take full advantage of that. Just in case…" She left the words, 'I die' slipp off into nothing as Usopp kissed her full on the lips. Slowly they seem to drag each other over to the bed, bits of clothing being taken off as they continued to kiss. Krista suddenly let out a laugh as they lay down on the bed together, Usopp tilted his head.  
"What's so funny, Krista?"  
"Just soaking in the irory…" She smiled as Usopp kissed her again.

The next morning, Krista slowly got out of bed, taking a shower she practically beamed as she got dressed. She then took out a scrap of paper and a pen, tapping it lightly on her chin, as she began to write.  
'The moon is almost full in the sky. The beast is almost ready to be reborn. So very little time is left, and yet I wish there was more.' Krista wrote on the paper, Usopp asleep in the bed behind her. 'My dear sisters. I beg you not to come; I will have to perform this act alone yet again. This man I have found.' She jumped a little as he rolled over, then letting out a sigh she continued, 'He's Yasopp's son, don't let him do anything….stupid. Keep him on one of your islands till everything is safe. I will let you know how it all turns out, but I'm pretty sure that it won't be too bad.' She tapped the pen against her chin; it had been a long time since she wrote anything to her sisters so she wanted to be short but to let them know how she had been. So much to write on only a scrap of paper. 'I love you both very much; I have been well, except for the adventures. Thank you for sending Shanks and his crew over here, that must have been Katlyn's' idea, she was always the smart one. I will always protect you two. You're loving sister, Krista.' She nodded rereading the letter twice over. This time she was going to do everything right, this time she had something more to protect then just her sisters. This was going to become her island, one that momma could have been proud of. It would take a lot of work to replace the ten years of fear she had put into the place but as long as she could protect it then there was nothing to give up. Walking over to Usopp she placed the letter in his grip, making sure it wouldn't come lose. Then she placed another smaller note in his overalls, and kissed him on the lips. A small wind picked up around him as he faded out with it. Krista nodded, pulling a lever on the wall; it flipped open to show a dusty book shelf. She pulled at one that seemed more tattered then the rest, brushing it off.  
"Tonight we're going to be together forever, beastie." she said, placing the book into a bag and shouldering it. She winced from the various burses she still had but a big smile covered her face. "To die would be an awfully big adventure."

Usopp awoke being shaken awake, his head flopping back and forth. "Oh Krista-chan…"  
"What? Usopp are you all right?" asked a familiar voice.  
"Ahh what a pretty place we are in Krista-Chan! No worries about anything here!" Usopp let out a sigh rolling over.  
"He was stabbed in the shoulder. But it looks like its healing well." said another voice. Suddenly Usopp was kicked out of bed.  
"What the hell! I wasn't snoring that bad was I …?" He asked rubbing his head. Looking up he came face to face with a fuzzy worried face. "Chopper?"  
"Usopp!" yelled Luffy's voice as he and Usopp hugged.  
"Luffy! This isn't a dream again, is it? She told me to watch out for those flowers…" Usopp said. He looked around at his crew mates as they all smiled at him.  
"We just found you on a random island." Said Zoro, leaning against the wall. "The people there seemed like the really wanted you off it though. Something about something happening tonight."  
"Tonight?" Suddenly his thoughts where very fuzzy, Flashes of the last few days where scanned over with a deep fog. "What's happening tonight?"  
"We don't know. As soon as Luffy saw you at that inn they where more then happy to give you up though." Nami said, as if she was trying to put it all together in her head as well. "They looked like they where preparing for a war though. Took us forever to get everything ready."  
"A War…?"  
'Forget it Usopp, You'll never make it back in time.' A voice whispered Usopp's head throbbed as he leaned over putting it in his hands. 'Forget about everything, and enjoy being back with your crew.'  
"This isn't a dream…? You guys really are here?" Usopp asked again as Luffy pinched both his cheeks.  
"OuchOuchOuchOuchOuchOuchOuch! All right, I'm awake at least!"  
"Come on, lets go on!" said Luffy with a big smile on his face, "Lets Party! All our Nakama are back!" The crew let out a cheer as they left the inside of the Thousand Sunny, out into the sunlight.  
"But what of…k….my nakama…I can't…I feel so confused." Usopp grabbed hold of his head, tears running down his face. He wasn't sad, though he felt he should be. His head felt all messed up and fuzzy as flashes here and there entered it.

"She was better then this then us." an older voice said.  
"What can be done, sister? His crew will be here by tomorrow, he must forget this place. He must forget her." Said a younger voice.  
"And so he shall, but this isn't an easy spell, and she's not easy to forget. Don't you remember how long it took to wipe the Red-Hair crew?" Said the older voice.  
"But he is but one. Surely the ease of it shall not be the matter of trial." said the younger.

"Usopp! Is something wrong?" Robin asked, as Usopp shook himself from his head. The sea was vast before him, the sun slowly setting in whatever direction it pleased.  
"Something is bothering me. Ever since I woke up it's like I'm stuck between remembering and forgetting…" He felt something heavy on his chest and pulled it out. It was a large oval stone, on its side. Nothing special about it, but it kept pointing to one direction, no matter how he spun the string.  
'If you get lost or separated from me use this to point you back here.' echoed a voice. Usopp's hand flung to his head, as he winced against it. A small scrap of paper fell from his shirt, Robin picked it up, slowly unfolding it.  
"Usopp, can you tell me everything you remember?" She asked, looking from the paper to him.  
"It hurts. I can't remember." He let out a yell, falling to his knees. Flashes of darkness and faces passed before his eyes. Moments of sweetness and fear, echoed in his ears.  
"Usopp!" Yelled Chopper, rushing over "Tell me, what hurts?"  
"My Nakama….No deeper…Deeper then nakama…" He said, tears falling down his face.  
'I'm losing him, sister!' said a young voice.  
'Don't let him remember! He can't remember!' said the older voice  
"I beg you let me remember! It's important! She's important!" He begged, then bending over the rail he threw up. Suddenly there was a flash on the deck, two ghostly forms floating in the air.  
'You stop! You can't remember!" Demanded the older woman, pointing at Usopp.  
"What the hell have you done to him?" Demanded Zoro, he Luffy and Sanji sanding at attack formation. "Tell us now!"  
'Fool! As if you could comprehend what was the matter in the first place!' Said the second woman, pointing an accusing finger at them, 'if he desires to live he will forget! As his father did and as the Red-Hairs did!'  
"You let our nakama go now!" Demanded Luffy pulling his arm back. "Gum…gum…."  
'You do not frighten us.' said The Younger as Luffy's arm passed right though her.  
"Be silent, Imouto. They deserve to know why he can't remember." The Elder said as Zoro ran at her, their swords clanged together as The Elder drew a sword from nowhere.  
"So, Let's Talk." Zoro said, as they jumped back from each other. The sisters now stood before them. Their long brown hair touching their shoulders. Their eyes glaring the pirates down. They where both dressed in simple garb, as the older sat down on the air, letting out a sigh.  
"Before we go on I must ask for you to take that one away." The Elder said, pointing to Usopp. "If he where to remember anything it would be disastrous."  
"We want him to remember." Sanji said, puffing at his cigarette "He's in love."  
"Love?" The sisters looked at each other, ashen. "He cannot have the fifth element….He cannot be it."  
"Ten years…for ten years she's been alone on that island." Usopp said standing and aiming his slingshot at them. "You never stop the adventures from trying to kill her… She gave up everything to protect your islands from that beast…." He was shaking in anger, as The Elder stared at him; The Younger pistol in hand gritted her teeth.  
"It was her doing." Said the younger. "What did she tell you? That she was protecting me from death? If she had stayed that night she would have known."  
"Known what?" He asked, slowly lowering his sling shot.  
"We knew of the beast long before the seer came that night. We had everything prepared for The Younger to take her place as the Guardian of the Beast." Said The Elder. "He was warning us of her follies. If she had not run out, not been so hot headed as to see that then her…."  
"Let me remember her! I want to see her face!" Usopp demanded, putting his hand to his chest. It ached badly.  
"We shall not!" Said The Younger, The Elder holding her hand, "You shouldn't have met her!  
"Let. My. Memories. Go." He demanded again, his whole body was aching as he felt Nami and Robin's hands on his shoulders. Suddenly a light from the sunset shot across the deck, piercing Usopp in the chest. All of his memories came back to him, Krista's face smiling in the dark.  
"Even now, we must weep for her." Said The Elder, as she pushed The Younger's arm down, motioning for her to put away her pistol. "Though it would be for the best that you forgot her, it seems that you have other plans." The Sisters started to fade out, a bright light shooting from the sunset over the deck to where they where.  
'It is too late. You will never find your way back.' The Elder said, tears running down their cheeks, 'if we could have made it possible, Usopp. We would have helped you.'  
"It is not your fate to control!" He said, pulling the lode stone out from his shirt. The sisters gaped as they flashed out. The Crew watched as the lode stone spun a few times, and then pointed firm and strait back to the islands. They let out a cheer as Nami took the helm and pointed the ship back to the Epic Islands.

"I want the whole brigade out to the middle island!" Demanded Katlyn into the den den mushi, a resounding Rodger echoing back.  
"Could it be, Katlyn….where we really wrong to take their memories away?" Amber mused, tears running down both Katlyn's' and her faces.  
"We had to Amber." Katlyn said, wiping at her face. "At least I thought we had to…"  
"Let's hurry and get to the middle island." Amber said, taking up her sword. "It's going to get very messy very quickly if we don't"

"Be very quite." Puck said as he walked though the jungle. "It's almost time for the big finally"

"Annnnnd done!" Krista said, almost cheerfully, she wiped her hands of dirt as she looked at the runes on the ground, looking back and forth between the book and the ground. "I should have this right, I mean it's been ten years since I last done it…"  
"Don't be so naive, I'm going to win out this time!" SAid her shadow, as it became full bodied lying on a trunk.  
"Stupid. You really think I would let something like you run around free? Ha! Not in this life time." She mumbled a few things, lights appearing as the sunlight faded though the trees. She took a rope wrapped it a few times around a log, and then around her waist.  
"They wiped his memories you know." it jumped off the log, walking up behind her.  
"And what do I care, if some man doesn't remember the likes of me?" Krista asked, slowly bandaging her arm up.  
"You can fool the world, you can fool yourself, but you can Never Fool Me, Human." The shadow laughed, touching Krista's hair lightly.  
"Shut up…" Krista said finishing her other arm. It wrapped its shadowed hand around her neck, its teeth gleaming in the darkness.  
"You love him deeply, don't you? Inside, it makes you fell all mushy. You nakama….No deeper then nakama, your lover…." It taunted.  
"You're just trying to make me mad." She said, as she took a deep breath.  
"ME? Make you mad? We've been such good friends all these years! You didn't tell him how I would ask you to kill him huh? You didn't tell that coward that it was taking all your strength not to let me out to eat him!" The shadow danced and laughed around Krista, who at this point was shaking. "You can hide nothing from me human…"  
"And once I get your ass in this dirt you can never hurt anyone again." Krista said, sweeping around. Her arm of course passed harmlessly though the shadow, but she kept swinging as it laughed at her.  
"And you really thought he cared. You lost the Fifth element TO the fifth element! One can only laugh at your weakness and stupidity." It noticed her crying, letting out a cruel and heartless laugh, "What's this? Tears? Then it is true! You let the only thing that could lock me up forever just walk away, I bet it was because you didn't want to see him hurt, wasn't it?"  
"Beast, you have tortured me these Ten Long Years, I will put you in this earth even at the cost of my own life!" Krista yelled, slowly lighting some candles around the book.  
"And lose your life you shall…" Taunted the shade.

The sisters where waiting on the shore when the Strawhats Thousand Sunny brushed up on the shore of the middle island.  
"Welcome back, son of Yasopp." Said the older sister, shifting her sword out a little. "We figured you where on your way back here."  
"Why are you just sitting out here? She should have started the ceremony by now." Usopp said, shouldering his kabuto.  
"Knowing Krista…not just yet." Smirked Katlyn. Suddenly from the jungle there was a giant explosion, making the Strawhats and men jump. The sisters shook their heads at each other.  
"She was never good at judging how little or how much to put in…" Amber said putting her hand to her head, "Gods, has it really been ten years…"  
"Yes. It has. Now if you excuse me…" Usopp said. Amber's sword was at his neck, Zoro's sword was at her neck, Katlyn's gun was at Zoro's head, Sanji's leg was on Katlyn's arm, and Robin's arms had everyone to one spot.  
"If you excuse us." Amber said, leaning her chin away from Zoro's sword. "This is a family affair, Krista asked us to keep you safe, that means you stay away from here until she's done."  
"I need to be there." He said simply, another fire ball sent a few trees flying off into the ocean.  
"Whatever we decide we must do it quickly." Katlyn warned, as the sky started turning an unwelcoming red.  
"Right. Show of hands if they want to move out into the scary jungle and possibly end up on the right side of dead." Amber Ordered, a slew of hands went up. Katlyn sifted her other hand out, an odd looking pistol in it.  
"Those who raised their hands please step in line to be shot by me. You knew from day one that you were required to perform this service, and I won't have any winy bitches following me to hell." Katlyn yelled as the hands quickly went down. Untangling themselves from the attack web both Amber and Katlyn let out a sigh as they marched the men though the jungle, the Strawhats staying behind with them.  
"You know as tough as we sound, Krista always made the better military person." Amber said, rubbing her shoulder. "I always feel bad afterwards for these guys. Krista could make them not only want to go to hell but bring back the heads of whatever beastie threatened us."  
"Yeah." Katlyn said, drinking some water.  
"Why do you speak of her as if she's dead?" Usopp demanded his Sogeking mask pulled down.  
"You didn't know?" The girls asked looking at each other. "Why did you think we wiped your memories? Why did you think we've brought pretty much the whole army here?" Katlyn asked, shouldering her water flask. "It's been ten years because Krista, the person, died ten years ago." you could cut the silence with a knife.  
"That's impossible." Sogeking said simply. "If that was true then how did she feel so real?"  
"The soul doesn't feel real to you?" Amber asked, letting out a sad sigh, "This isn't a fight to keep a big bad beastie out, sir. It's a fight to get her back."  
"There are three factions trying to get her, you see." Said Katlyn, holding up her fingers. "One is Hell, One is Heaven and one is Earth."  
"It has been ten years since she died, but she died when she was twenty three years old. She's just been reliving her life since she was fourteen years old." Explained Amber, grabbing Katlyn's water flask, "When she came back from the middle island when she was 14 we where able to figure out how to keep the big bad bottled up inside of her. She was able to come back to the main island and be our military's Sergeant Major, then there was a disturbance in the middle island and she took half the army in to see what was going on."  
Katlyn let out a deep sigh, "Needless to say she didn't make it back."  
"Your saying…that Usopp…?" Sanji started. The sisters looked at each other, then back to Sogeking who was making a sound between being strangled and being choked.  
"Do not get us wrong," Said Amber, a small smile crossing her face, "she dose have a physical body here, and if anything was done to her…"  
"Not that there would be considering that she is our sister and if he had done anything to her that wasn't of the purest intentions, I'm afraid he might have a long drop with a short stop planed for the near future.." Katlyn said, standing directly next to Sogeking, he let our a few coughs moving slowly away from her.  
"Then how old is shy really?" Asked Zoro.  
"Twenty three. She never aged past there so any memories she's collected since she died have just been mixed in with the old ones." They came to an open pat in the jungle where the men had stopped. Before them, floating in the middle of the clearing was Puck. Sogeking readied his kabuto, and the Strawhats ready for battle but the sisters stood in their way.  
"Hello again, Puck." Amber said, bowing a little  
"We meet again, Elder. I have come once again to ferry your sister to judgment." he said, looking pointedly at Sogeking. "And you, I will be seeing you soon."  
"We must hurry if you are here then." Said Katlyn, waving the men to the sides.

Krista coughed a few times, smoke clearing around her. The shade was dancing around her, taking her own body as a form now.  
"Oh look at that, you messed up again, story of your life. Or was it death? It's been so long I often confuse the two!" the shade laughed as Krista tossed a rock at it.  
"Shut up! I swear you get more annoying as time goes on." She let out a heavy sigh as the moon came into full view of the clearing. "Ok, time to get this show on the road." She clapped her hands together as she started muttering the ancient words in the book. She had to ignore the crashes behind her as many voices soon came to her ears.

"Hold fast." Amber said, holding the group back. "She's started. If we enter now we might suffer the same fate as her."  
"Or worse." added Katlyn, her pistols drawn.  
"so what do we do?" Luffy asked, ready to barge in.  
"Tell me, stupid, you ever ran in head on while an angel and a demon fought over your head?" Katlyn asked, grabbing his shirt. "You will wait until the time is right for you to enter!"  
"When will that be?" Asked Sanji as the wind picked up around them.  
"Right after the Angel." The sisters said together. They looked up as a light from on high flooded the clearing.

"OF ALL THE SOULS THAT I SHOULD HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF, HOW IS IT THAT YOURS IS STILL STUCK IN ONE SPOT?" a voice boomed out over the clearing, making everyone duck. Krista grinned up at the bright light above her as the shade cowered beneath a rock.  
"Just luck I guess! Come on Atticus, you know I have unfinished important things here!" She yelled back, waving her hands above the book.  
"NOT ACCORDING TO THE BIG BOOKS UP HERE, YOUNG LADY." Down slowly came an angel, Atticus the guardian angel of soldiers descended from on high to deal with Krista.  
"Check the Foot notes!" she said.  
"YOU KNOW THE RULES THEN." He said, handing her a glowing sword.  
"Yes I know. First the demon then the reaper. We seem to go though this every ten years huh?"  
"YOU KNOW THAT FIRST TIME WAS A ONE IN A MILLION SHOT." He said, as the light started to fade.  
"Yeah, I never understood those."

As soon as the light from on high faded out a light from down below started billowing up from the earth. Red angry fog surrounded her feet as the demon let out a laugh of triumph.  
"See! You ask for help from on high and what? They gave you a sword? A SWORD!" it laughed, growing larger and more monstrous with the fog.  
"Now can we go help her?" demanded Franky, Amber gave a curt nod as the men, the sisters and the Strawhats all rushed the clearing. Krista let out a yell of surprise as she was flanked by Sogeking and her sisters.  
"What in the hell…?" she started.  
"That's what we are trying to keep you from!" Amber yelled as the first wave of small demons started rushing them.  
"You don't think a little thing like being dead could keep us from protecting you, did you?" Katlyn asked, getting off a perfect shot into a flying bitch.  
"And what's your excuse?" She asked Sogeking, as he fired off a flaming projectile into the oncoming waves.  
"I love you!" He said. Krista grinned lifting up the mask to kiss him on the lips before cutting down a demon.  
"Eh Fair enough."

The giant monster let out a roar as the army's advanced on each other. There was a clash of lighting as Krista and her shade met right in the middle, swords beating against each other in such a flurry that the only thing you could see of the two where their faces. Luffy had switched over to second gear, his body on fire as he stared taking down more then enough for one person. Sanji flipped around, his legs bashing into the face of a more then ugly monster. Zoro cut though a line of monsters as they fell to pieces at his feet, sweat being soaked into his bandana tied around his head. Chopper swallowed down his rumble ball as he switched into arm point as Franky launched him at an unruly group of harpies. A black cloud appeared over a giant centipede as Nami shot it with a bolt of lighting. Under a group of zombies Robin's hands shot up, pulling the rotting corpses back into the ground and head height as Amber summoned her fire pony riding it madly though the crowd cutting off the heads of every monster she saw, like a Hessian mercenary. Brook joined a small group of swordsmen slicing and dancing though the monster mob. Katlyn shouldered a giant pistol, shooting what looked like confetti over the crowd, as it slowly drifted to the ground though it picked up unnatural speed ad sliced though unfriendly skin like razorblades. Usopp pulled his kabuto back letting fly several fire balls, the flames hitting the monsters hard. He ducked as a light flashed across the clearing at him from where Krista was fighting the Shade. The battle continued as they pushed the monster horde closer and closer to the large pit in the center of the clearing. Suddenly the Shade jumped into the air, spreading out some leather wings. Amber rode quickly up behind Krista as she lifted her little sister up on the back of the horse, they rode over to Katlyn who aimed her confetti pistol up in the air firing off a shot that bunched together as a giant ball. Krista jumped from the horse to the ball, flying up at the shade. The beast let out a roar as she plunged her sword into it's middle. Sogeking let off another fireball shot, it bursting into flames on the beast as gravity took over making Krista and the beast fall right toward the pit. Krista burned with the beast as the fire enveloped her as they fell towards the earth.  
"Tergum pessum , ut abyssus ut vos venit ex. EGO transporto vos illic per venia of Deus quod totus suus angelus. Pro EGO sum Solvo vestrum cetera of vicis!" Krista Screamed. They fell into the pit and it closed up over them. Everyone ran over to the scorched earth as a deep rumbled echoed in the night. Suddenly a hand shot up from the earth as Amber and Katlyn started digging at the earth. Everyone who could reach joined in and soon Krista was kneeling out of the hole, smiling like a mad man.  
"like a bat outta hell." She said. Amber and Katlyn pounced their sister, hugging her tightly. After they where done she practically fell into Sogeking's arms, taking in a deep breath of air.  
"Not quite." Puck's voice echoed over the happy cheers.  
"Damn, you really know how to kill the mood, don'tcha Puck?" She asked sarcastically as Puck, now nothing more then a skeleton with a scar over his eye.  
"This time I won't let you win, you will go to judgment, Monster." He said, drawing out his daggers. The Strawhats stood before Krista as she leaned on Sogeking.  
"I thought it was you had to play a game against the reaper?" Asked Brook, hiding a bit behind the girls.  
"I did, last time." Krista said, a cut on her forehead leaking blood down her face. "This guy is just a poor loser."  
"Enough!" Puck yelled. He waved his hand, knife in his boney fist, the Strawhats, men, and sisters flung aside leaving Krista and Sogeking standing before the Grim Reaper. He slowly floated up to them as Krista stood protectively in front of Sogeking.  
"This time, you will not be as lucky." Puck said, Krista grinned, tilting her head down for some dramatic lighting to splash on her face.  
"Luck has nothing to do with it." She said, The sword that she had buried in the evil shade appeared now in her hands as Puck leaped at her. The two engaged each other as Amber and Katlyn grabbed onto Sogeking, pulling him out of harms way. Puck sliced and cut at Krista's middle, his mad attacks barely being blocked by her. Her exhaustion was starting to show on her face as she leaped back from him, Clutching her chest.  
The sisters hung onto each other, watching this battle, tears in their faces as Puck rushed Krista for the final blow, his knifes forming together into a scythe that came crashing down. Krista stuck out her chest in defiance of the final blow when suddenly Usopp, his Sogeking mask discarded, blocked the blow with his kabuto.  
"Out of the way, Usopp. Your time has not come." Puck said, leaning his face close to Usopp's.  
"There is another way to defeat you!" he yelled, holding the scythe above him on the kabuto. The weapon started cracking under the pressure of the power of the instrument of death though.  
"Your really not going to…." Puck started as his skull leaned in closer.  
"I am. I beg you not to take this soul to judgment." Usopp said, as the pressure dropped him to his knees.  
"And if I refuse? I've been chasing her soul for ten years now and you thing a little human like you can stop me from reaping?" Puck demanded. Krista put her arms on the inside of Usopps arms, helping him lift the kabuto up, their combined force pushing the Grim Reaper and his scythe back. Usopp put his arms around Krista protectively, as she slumped against his chest. Puck, shook his cowl looking up to the heavens as he nodded his boney head.  
"Very well. You seem to have friends in high places." Puck sneer, "Again, I must consent to your winning."  
Krista let out a laugh as they watched him fade into the void. "Want to try again in ten years, Puck?" She taunted, but the Reaper just shook his head.  
"Oh I won't be seeing you again for a very, very long time."

The sun broke over the horizon as the morning birds chirped some happy tune. Krista was rushed by her sisters and the men, all of them happy to see her living and breathing again.  
"Ha! I'm the youngest now I guess!" She said as Katlyn punched her in the arm.  
"oh just because I'm twenty eight now doesn't make you the little sister!" Katlyn said, "It's not fair that you got out of ten years of ageing by dieing!" Amber let out a laugh as she hugged her little sisters.  
Needless to say, there was a party on the middle island that lasted all day. The people on the other islands slowly started boating over, bringing food and drink. The Strawhats relaxed with some new found fame as the ale and the meat never stopped. No one really noticed that Usopp and Krista slipped away.

Usopp let out a happy sigh leaning against a tree, only covered with a blanket and Krista. He touched her hair lightly as she kissed his cheek. They where both trying to put off the conversation that they needed to have.  
"Usopp…I want you to go with your nakama." Krista said, looking him directly in the eyes. "I want you to finish your adventures with them and make your dream come true."  
"But what about you?" He asked touching her face, "I mean now that your alive again…"  
"I will wait, though I can't promise that I'll stay in one place. Though it looks like my sisters want me to become Sergeant Major again.." she laughed as he grabbed hold of her shoulders, attacking her neck.  
"And when we meet again, no more adventure. I think I had enough to fill up my quota for a year."  
"I love you Krista." Usopp said. "The lode stone will always point me to you."  
"I love you too, Usopp." they embraced quietly after that. The sun setting on them.

I would like to tell you that they did meet up again, after Usopp finished his adventures. I would like to tell you that the islands prospered and flourished after the great battle. I would like to tell you of all the adventures Krista and her sisters had after the Strawhats left. But I can't. I will only let you fill in your own ever after. But for this story, This is truly, The End. 


End file.
